Game 4 was not the first time the Washington Wizards decided to attack Ben Simmons without compensation. In early December 2017, Simmons walked to the free throw line 29 times under the order of Scott Brooks (Scott Brooks), who tried to defeat Philadelphia by demonizing the game. That terrible Monday night was nowhere near, but the playoffs in late May are more meaningful. After the Wizards sent Simmons to the free throw line at a critical moment, the 76ers eventually lost a potential Final battle.

Please note that Doc Rivers did not have that conversation after the game. As the controversy over Simmons intensified in the Philadelphia area, Rivers became increasingly impatient with his point guard screens.

Rivers said: “You keep the Ben Simmons story alive. To me, how awesome this guy is and all the things he does is crazy.” “Ben is not a 40-point person, This has nothing to do with what he did, he did other things for your team. I just don’t understand why in our city, this doesn’t sink. Everyone on the team doesn’t have to be a scorer to help the team. Ben scores, but Ben creates scores for us, and that’s what he did. If I were Ben at some point, I would get tired of it. I just will, because he is so good, he did make this basketball team There are so many good things, I keep saying, celebrate him! We have not done enough to celebrate all the things he has done well.”

“He didn’t [make all his free throws,] But he is still doing other things. He separated them all, once again, analyze, and I will accept it. Obviously, I hope he can do more…Listen, you guys continue to tell Ben’s story. We will only continue to play. “

Rivers remained calm, calm and composed for the whole season, having experienced difficult losses, weird performances and a team plagued by injuries. Defending Simmons is basically the only time we have seen him hot in front of the microphone, even though he certainly has a majestic performance on the sidelines and in front of his players.

Perhaps this illustrates the challenge of entering Simmons. Rivers’ predecessor tried a variety of strategies to play Simmons’ best performance, including openly challenging him to shoot more three-pointers, and then later admitted that he had failed, but was ignored. In all the progress the 76ers have made year by year, Simmons has always been the same, a lightning rod for fans and analysts. Whether Simmons is stubborn or stubborn depends on your view of the situation, and more and more fan camps find themselves deeply ingrained in those black and white areas.

Since Joel Embiid was ruled out due to a sore right knee, Simmons had the opportunity to come forward and make up for the vacancy in the scoring department, but a foul problem kept him out of the game for most of the game. Just staying on the floor for 25 minutes is a perfectly reasonable explanation for not picking it up-you can only contribute when you are actually on the floor. However, no matter what the situation is, there are still many people who still will not accept one of the team’s leaders shooting five times in a game. Hell, Ish Smith is a miniature substitute, he played five minutes less than Simmons, but still managed to equal the total number of shots he played next to a group of black hole teammates.

In Rivers’ view, Simmons does not view these situations the way his critics do. Except for 40+ points against the Utah Jazz, games and games without Embiid will not trigger his inside scorer. With or without Embiid, with or without Tobias Harris, with or without a coach asking it to tear it apart, he is the same.

“I was a little passive at some point,” Simmons said after losing on Monday. “But at the same time, I tried to get a great appearance for my teammates, you know. [Furkan Korkmaz] Come in, knock down a quick one, and then get us back into the game. Then he had one more at the top of the key, missed it, but we look good. “

The duel camp reappeared. Those who stood with Simmons saw a wide field of vision and stood with the point guard they supported. They hoped that this man could lead Philadelphia to the perimeter championship. He is always out, and many of them are reasonable.Fulkan Korkmaz Have done Continue a good run to open the fourth quarter.

Then some people see him as the label he and many others have put on him-star, top-paid player, generation of genius-and question how he can lead offense if he is always willing to let others determine the team’s performance fate. He is not the first or last player to be accused of being passive at a critical moment, and he is unlikely to get out of the vortex without a substantial change in the game. When things get tough, those people don’t want to hear you trying to ride Furkan Korkmaz.

Usually what you need to do is to split every free throw in the case of a hacker attack to prevent the opponent from hacking. When you don’t have to consume the clock or consume energy, getting one point for every possession is not the worst thing in the world. Teammate Danny Green understood Washington’s decision to implement this strategy in their own way, but he saw other reasons for Philadelphia’s loss in Game 4.

“[Washington is] Not stupid, they have seen the movie, watched, read the numbers and statistics, so they know that he didn’t shoot well at the free throw line of the series. He made 5 tonight and I am very satisfied with it. Obviously he will have higher demands on himself than anyone else. He will go to the gym and make sure he can regain his rhythm. For him, this is more like a spiritual thing, but it is not the reason we lost the game. It’s not a free throw, it’s not a referee, you know, it’s that we didn’t perform what we should do in the way we knew it, nor did it the way we did…tonight we were out of our identity. “

Put forward a reasonable point again. If the 76ers can stop on the defensive end while Simmons is sent for a free throw, they will come out of an ugly situation.

However, part of the reason they didn’t do this was because they had to set up a lineup on the court to make the offense work without Embiid in the game. Dwight Howard has been a very capable backup center this year, but when he shared the field with Simmons, the 76ers were a space disaster. Rivers chose to get smaller, ending with the Simmons-Harris-Kokmaz-Green quartet, with either Curry or Maxi in fifth place. Few people would be surprised that they could not control the breakthrough and eventually gave up the open observation of the rim and the outside because there was no rim protector as the last line of defense.

In so many words, Rivers agreed with Green’s assessment of who or what to blame. The head coach sneered at the idea of ??removing Simmons at any time during the stretch run, and pointed out that he would “pass” the suggestion.The river seems to be trapped that The idea that came from the middle of his Zoom press, he later re-examined it, moving from the conversation about Simmons’ post-All-Star percentage to the idea of ??pulling him off the court.

“Keep working hard,” Rivers said of the free throw issue. “I think he will. I don’t think he was scared at the time, he just didn’t succeed. So you know again, with this, we will let him stay on the court, unless you want us to sit on the bench.” He hit the whole Games. If anyone wants us to do this, please let me know. Then I knew you didn’t understand basketball. ”

No one has ever mentioned such a thing, but this is the state of Simmons’ discourse both locally and across the country. Malicious arguments rule this day.

The 76ers provided little insight into Joel Embiid’s health in the moments after the game, and they suddenly stared at the prospect of their best player missing time. Wednesday’s fifth game will be Philadelphia’s first game with a large audience since March last year. This situation may win the 76ers, no matter who fits and how many fights the Wizards have left on them. .

In theory, Simmons is easy to get along with his teammates (“handling things in the crib,” rookie Tyrese Maxy said). He has the opportunity to build on the entire series, make up for the shortcomings in Embiid’s absence, and lead the team to victory so they can move on without suffering more wear and tear in the series. On the issue of free throws, Simmons thinks it is not complicated.

“Stand up and knock them down, really,” Simmons said Monday. “That’s it.”

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