Aussies huge for Sixers

Simmons, Bolden on fire

BEN Simmons was just one assist shy of his eighth tripledouble of the NBA season yesterday, while fellow Australian Jonah Bolden had a careerhigh 14 points in Philadelphia’s 149-107 thrashing of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Not required in the final quarter, Simmons, pictured below, had 20 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in 26 minutes while Bolden made four of five three-point attempts in his 15 minutes off the bench.

Joel Embiid led the hosts with 31 points and 13 rebounds, for his league-leading 37th double-double of the campaign, as Jimmy Butler added an efficient 19 points in his first game against the team he demanded to be traded from last year — a deal that sent forwards Robert Covington and Dario Saric to the Wolves.

The Sixers made a franchise-record 21 threepointers in their highest point total in the 22-year history of the Wells Fargo Center and their 83 first-half points has only been bettered by the Golden State Warriors’ 92 against the Chicago Bulls on October 29. The Sixers are 29-16 and fourth in the Eastern Conference after their biggest winning margin of the season. But they play their next 12 games against teams with winning records. Derrick Rose led the Timberwolves with 15 points, and surpassed 10,000 NBA points along the way, while Saric had 11 points and Covington sat out the game with a knee injury. Bojan Bogdanovic scored 20 points and the Indiana Pacers cruised to a 131-97 victory over the Phoenix Suns to consolidate third spot in the east. Myles Turner returned for the first time in four games to finish with 18 points and six rebounds against the Suns, who are bottom of the Western Conference. TJ Warren had a teamhigh 18 points and Kelly Oubre Jr added 16 for Phoenix.