{"id":76708,"date":"2021-05-27T05:14:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T05:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=76708"},"modified":"2021-05-27T07:01:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T07:01:37","slug":"what-yall-want-simmons-fires-shot-at-haters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=76708","title":{"rendered":"'What y'all want': Simmons fires shot at haters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid each scored 22 points and Tobias Harris added 19 for the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers to beat the Washington Wizards 120-95 and take a 2-0 lead in the first-round playoff series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Simmons added nine rebounds and eight assists after becoming just the sixth player in NBA history to have at least 15 rebounds and 15 assists in a playoff game in a 125-118 win in Game 1.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Aussie All-Star was in the thick of the action once again in Game 2, and had a message for his critics in Philadelphia following that stellar performance in Game 1 that saw him score just six points and miss all six of his free throws.<\/p>\n

"I'm not trying to stick to anybody in Philly," Simmons told media post-game after producing his highest-scoring playoff game since 2019.<\/p>\n

"I thought it was pretty hard to get 15 assists and 15 rebounds in the NBA in the playoffs. I thought that was pretty impressive. And we won.<\/p>\n

"What y'all want? You want to win? For me, I'm here to win and I'm doing what I need to do to help my team win, whatever it is.<\/p>\n

"I'm not trying to prove anybody wrong or anything like that. I'm trying to do my job to win."<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Simmons was aggressive from the start in Game 2, scoring the team's first two baskets on his way to 12 points in the first quarter, including three dunks.<\/p>\n

He said he wasn't trying to prove a point but rather making plays available, a trait his coach Doc Rivers appreciated in defending the Australian product earlier in the week.<\/a><\/p>\n

"That's the point of basketball, right? People who have it going, you have to give them the ball," Simmons said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBATV\/status\/1397696286111911936<\/a><\/p>\n

"I'm not surprised Doc said that because Doc knows the game.<\/p>\n

"A lot of these people who are saying things haven't played the game."<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old showed his versatility to outmuscle Bradley Beal to score before denying the Wizards star at the other end of the court.<\/p>\n

\"Simmons<\/p>\n

Embiid was happy to see Simmons take advantage when Washington chose to double-team him.<\/p>\n

"With the way they were guarding me, guys were open and he was the recipient of that," Embiid said.<\/p>\n

"He was aggressive. I told him: 'You have all the space in the world. Just attack and be aggressive.'"<\/p>\n

Simmons also put a spin move on Russell Westbrook<\/a> that sent him sprawling to the floor several minutes before an ankle injury sent the NBA's triple-double king to the locker room and nearly into the stands to confront a misbehaving fan.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Westbrook<\/p>\n

Westbrook went down after colliding with Furkan Korkmaz early in the fourth quarter. He limped off the floor and then was restrained by security after a fan threw popcorn at him as he was headed under the tunnel.<\/p>\n

"We'll see," Westbrook said about his availability for the next game. "Hurt it twice in a short amount of time. We'll see what happens."<\/p>\n

Beal had 33 points and Westbrook finished with 10 points and 11 assists for sub-.500 Washington.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBATV\/status\/1397727891517952007<\/a><\/p>\n

Embiid scored on a driving layup, got knocked to the floor and sank a free throw to complete a three-point play in the final minute of the second quarter. Dwight Howard led the crowd's chants of "M-V-P! M-V-P!" for Embiid, who raised both hands and soaked in the adoration.<\/p>\n

The Sixers withstood 24 first-half points from Beal in the first half and led 71-57 at halftime. They maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half.<\/p>\n

Game 3 is Saturday night at Washington.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid each scored 22 points and Tobias Harris added 19 for the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers to beat the Washington Wizards 120-95 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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\/76708"}],"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=76708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76710,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76708\/revisions\/76710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}