{"id":341791,"date":"2023-10-26T03:04:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T03:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=341791"},"modified":"2023-10-26T04:01:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T04:01:16","slug":"what-you-want-to-see-simmons-makes-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=341791","title":{"rendered":"'What you want to see': Simmons makes statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Simmons<\/a> was overshadowed by a little-known teammate as the Brooklyn Nets lost a thrilling NBA season opener 114-113 to the highly touted Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday (AEDT).<\/p>\n

Simmons, the much maligned Australian star, contributed four points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in his 23 minutes on court at the Barclays Centre.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old had generated pre-season hype after reporting to camp fully fit and largely lived up to those expectations.<\/p>\n

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\"Ben<\/p>\n

"Ben Simmons, you can feel his presence on the boards, on the pace, on the push," analyst Sarah Kustok said on the YES Network.<\/p>\n

"He hasn't been able to convert around the basket on some of his takes but that explosiveness and what you want to see out of him is starting to show."<\/p>\n

Cam Thomas scored 36 for Brooklyn, setting a league record for most points for a reserve in a season opener.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

But All-Star\ufeff Donovan Mitchell scored 10 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter to guide the Cavaliers to a first road win in a season opener since 2000.<\/p>\n

Cleveland had six players score in double figures.<\/p>\n

Max Strus, who started in place of injured centre Jarrett Allen, had 27 points and 12 rebounds.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1717370415373328635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Isaac Okoro scored 18 points, Darius Garland finished with 15 and Mikal Bridges scored 11 of his 20 in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn was built to be a defence-oriented team, but it struggled defensively in the preseason and it carried over to the home opener.<\/p>\n

Cleveland shot 46.8 per cent from the field, including a 17-for-43 performance from three point range.<\/p>\n

\"Simmons'<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers led 90-87 after three quarters, but the Nets opened the fourth with a 14-5 run.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn went ahead 113-111 on two Bridges free throws with 19 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n

But Mitchell's three gave Cleveland a one point lead and Thomas missed a three for the Nets in the final seconds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Simmons was overshadowed by a little-known teammate as the Brooklyn Nets lost a thrilling NBA season opener 114-113 to the highly touted Cleveland Cavaliers […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":341793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=341791"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341797,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341791\/revisions\/341797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/341793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=341791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=341791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=341791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}