Ben Simmons and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Game 2 has been the talk of Friday around Friday. Simmons had one point on 0-of-4 shooting in 30 minutes, racked up seven assists but had five turnovers, and was -23 on the night.
Don’t fear, the man still has some powerful allies in his corner.
One is Sixers’ legend Allen Iverson, who Simmons spoke to Friday, as reported at NBC Sports Philadephia.Another was the only other guy seriously mentioned in the Rookie of the Year race, Utah’s Donovan Mitchell. Sure, Mitchell took some jabs at Simmons during the heat of that race, but he had the Sixers’ star’s back Friday, as reported by ESPN.
“The biggest thing that people don’t understand is that every player has that night,” Mitchell said... “You look at LeBron [James] against the Mavs in the Finals, he had eight points [in Game 4]. There was one year I was watching [James] Harden play against the Warriors, and he had about 10 turnovers in a playoff game. So it happens to everybody.
“It just so happens that it happened to [Simmons], and I expect him to respond back. He’s a good player. Good players respond back, and it’s all about the response.”
Back home in Philly for Game 3 Saturday, expect a Simmons to respond with force. Same with the Sixers as a team.
If not, well, they will get to Cabo a little earlier than some of us expected.