Ben Simmons endured a difficult night with free throws, so much so that it proved a viable tactic for the Washington Wizards who deliberately sent the Aussie to the line in their 122-114 playoff win over the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n
With superstar teammate Joel Embiid gone for most of Game 4, Bradley Beal's 27 points, Russell Westbrook's 12th career playoff triple-double and Washington's strategy of fouling Ben Simmons whenever possible down the stretch all helped the Wizards beat the 76ers to cut Philadelphia's series edge to 3-1.<\/p>\n
The 76ers led by as many as 11 in the opening period but that was down to 61-60 at halftime. A back-and-forth fourth quarter was tight down the stretch after Danny Green's layup with under 4 1\/2 minutes to go made it 106-all.<\/p>\n
But that's when Washington basically took the ball out of Philadelphia's hands, sending Simmons to the line repeatedly down the stretch with a version of the old Hack-a-Shaq strategy that Shaquille O'Neal used to face.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fouled and sent to the line four times with less than three minutes remaining, Simmons went 4-for-8 in a mediocre showing under pressure, allowing the Wizards to negate Philly's attack in a tense final period.<\/p>\n
"Obviously that's what they're going to do. That's what they should do," Rivers said. "And I'm OK with that."<\/p>\n
Simmons came into the night 0 for 9 on free throws in the series and was 1 for 3 for the night before Hack-a-Ben went into full effect \u2014 he made 1 of 2 tries each of the final four times he stepped to the line to end up 5 for 11 by the end of the night.<\/p>\n
Asked by a reporter about keeping Simmons in the game while Washington repeatedly fouled him, Rivers replied: "You want me to take Ben Simmons off the floor? No. He's pretty good. I'll pass on that suggestion.<\/p>\n
"Analytically, if you split all those free throws, offensively, you'd take a point per possession.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/twitter.com\/loganreever\/status\/1399543449280552963<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealSkipBayless\/status\/1399545473136881672<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/julianedlow\/status\/1399545430703280141<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/TroyRenck\/status\/1399543515231621120<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/minakimes\/status\/1399543298759430146<\/a><\/p>\n "He did that. I had no issues with it. Obviously, I'd love him to hit them both. But I didn't think that changed the game at all for us.<\/p>\n "I was fine with it. If he had have missed both, and both, and both, then that would be something. But overall, I was fine with it.<\/p>\n Pressed on Simmons again, Rivers added: "You guys keep this Ben Simmons narrative alive, which to me is freakin' insane how good this guy is, and all the things he does.<\/p>\n "Ben is not a 40-point guy. That's not what he does. He does other things for you team, and I just don't understand why that's not sinking in in our city.<\/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> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"