Simmons impresses in delayed debut
WASHINGTON » A year behind schedule, but about as advertised, Ben Simmons made his NBA regular-season debut Wednesday.
“And how about him,” Brett Brown said, “for his first game?”
Though none of it helped the Sixers avoid a 120-115 loss to the Washington Wizards, Simmons was smooth and active, shooting 7-for-15 for 18 points, bagging 10 defensive rebounds to start numerous offensive rushes, delivering five assists and committing just one turnover. He was ready for the moment. “It’s my job,” he shrugged. “I’ve been doing it my whole life.”
For all of last season, however, his job was to recover from a broken foot. There was no evidence Tuesday of any lingering troubles.
“I thought I handled it well, and I played well overall,” Simmons said. “I still have to work on a lot of things. But as a team, we’re getting there. It’s exciting to see that. We didn’t get the win, obviously. But I just know this team can be special. And I am looking forward to seeing how far we can get.”
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Slowed by a sore knee and shoulder in training camp, yet on display before many friends and family from his nearby hometown of Upper Marlboro, Md., Markelle Fultz was not out of place in his first NBA game.
While the first overall pick in the last draft didn’t start and sputtered early, he would shoot 5-for-9 for 10 points.
“I thought he was good,” Brown
said. “His plus-minus didn’t read that way. But he showed fluid play with how he ended up on one part of the floor when you thought he was going in one direction and he went in the other. He is elusive and he has the ability to change directions in a very fluid way.
“For his first NBA game, given the limited amount of practice time that he has had, I thought he was really good.”
That Fultz he was a minus-18 had to trouble the Sixers.
“I think I did some things good and I did some things that I have to improve on,” Fultz said. “But all around, I think I did pretty good.”
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Joel Embiid’s public protest about the continuing minutes-limits imposed on him by the Sixers’ sports science department appeared to have the desired effect.
Earlier Tuesday, Brown began the walk-back of the concept, suggesting the limits were mere parameters. During the game, he allowed Embiid to play 26 minutes and 57 seconds. Afterward, Brown all but dismissed the idea of minutes restrictions at all.
“The thing I have said for the last few weeks is that the rigid, rote number of minutes is a range,” Brown said. “It’s more of a plan that we have this year than a restriction. And when you look at and you feel the flow of the game, that’s where the variables come in.”
Embiid shot 7-for-17 for 18 points, collected 12 of his 13 rebounds at the defensive end and blocked a shot. He was 0-for-4 from three-point range.
“I felt good,” Embiid said. “I just went out and saw how I felt and I felt very good. I kept playing, and if I felt that I was tired, then take me out. That was the plan. I thought I felt good. I thought I had a bad game, especially defensively. I wasn’t as quick as I am used to. So that will get better.”
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The Sixers are 0-1, but they had an early fourthquarter lead and were within one possession with 2.1 seconds left.
“I was proud of them,” Brown said. “To come into this building and play a team like that, a veteran team that has gone deep in the playoffs, and on opening night to look up and with 1:30 left be down two, that’s a good reason to be happy with a lot of what we saw.
“We had two crucial turnovers at the end. But my immediate thoughts leaving the building were that there were lots of positives.”
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NOTES » Robert Covington shot 7-for-11 from 3-point range. Thursday, he will present a $20,000 check to Playworks Pennsylvania to help provide healthy and safe playgrounds in Philadelphia. The ceremony will be at 2 p.m. at the Chester Arthur School, 2000 Catherine Street in Philadelphia. … The Sixers will play the Celtics Friday night at 7 in their home opener.