No Embiid, Harden, and Maxey and they still lost?!? The Brooklyn Nets have floundered once again as they lost to an injury-battered, starless 76ers team 115-106 in Ben Simmons return game to Philadelphia.
The Brooklyn Nets are such a weird team to watch. On one night they can look like the greatest team to have ever been assembled, but the very next night they look like they haven’t played a minute of NBA basketball in their lifetimes. It is utterly insane how Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde the Nets can be.
Coming off two huge wins against the Portland Trail Blazers and the Memphis Grizzlies, the Brooklyn Nets were poised to win their third in a row and get back into the East’s playoff picture as they faced off against a 76ers team that was without its three main stars: Joel Embiid, James Harden, and Tyrese Maxey.
How was a team whose best player on the night was journeyman Tobias Harris going to defeat a team whose starting lineup consisted of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Royce O’Neale, Ben Simmons, and Nic Claxton? Plus, like I mentioned earlier, it was Ben Simmons return to Philadelphia night as he was facing off against the team that openly criticized him and nearly derailed his career (though, I would argue he did it to himself) for the first time.
What could possibly go wrong for the Nets?
Well, everything as the 76ers utterly spanked the Nets in the first and last quarters to take this game.
To my complete surprise, the depth players of Philadelphia showed up big time for their injured stars as guys like Tobias Harris (24 PTS, 6 REB, 3 AST), De’Anthony Melton (22 PTS, 4 REB, 4 AST), and Paul Reed (19 PTS, 10 REB), who would have been on the bench if the stars were playing, took control of the game earlier on.
Simply put, the 76ers backups showed up the Nets starters when the game mattered the most as the Phillys won this game on the back of an impressive 1st and 4th Quarter in which they scored 30+ points, respectively. They even scored 30 again in the 2nd Quarter, though the Nets just outshot them 31-30.
So, in other words, the Nets proved once again that they are a horrible defensive team when Durant, Irving, and Simmons play with one another on the court at the same time as each one of these guys finished the game with a negative+/-, with KD even having a -10 against BACKUPS!
Moreover, Royce O’Neale, who was a great defender during his time with the Jazz, is getting absolutely lit up with the Nets as he again struggled to stem the offensive flow of the opposing teams as he finished with a starting lineup worst -13 +/- on top of his meager 11 points.
Of course, KD (20 PTS, 5 REB, 5 AST) and Kyrie (23 PTS, 2 REB, 2 AST) will give the Nets 20+ points a night, but those points are worthless when they allow anywhere from 30-40 points against in the same game. It obvious neither Durant nor Irving wants to be in Brooklyn anymore (and I don’t blame them), but they need to step it up defensively or else the Nets are going to miss the playoffs for the second time during the KD-Kyrie era.
Though, I must say out of all the players that played last night, Ben Simmons was surprisingly the most impressive one for Brooklyn. Sure, he wasn’t that great offensively as he only scored 11 points…but he did have 11 assists. And he was by far the Nets best defensive player.
Blocking out the noise from a boisterous Philly crowd that was boing him on every possession, Simmons rose to the occasion defensively as he finished the game with 7 REB (5 DEF REB), 3 STL, and 3 BLK, though he did finish with a -9 +/-. Oh, and he was playing against backups, so maybe I’m overhyping him too much.
Regardless, I’m definitely not overhyping the Brooklyn Nets (8-10) as they are just a dysfunctional basketball team with the KD-Kyrie partnership on the court and the Marks-Tsai leadership paring at the top. Someone has to give out and get replaced this offseason because this team is a joke.
As for the 76ers (9-8), all I can really say is that their backups did their jobs today. They performed against all the odds and beat two Top-75 all-time NBA players without the support of their own Top-75 NBA franchise superstars. I’ll judge the 76ers season when Embiid, Harden, and Maxey come back.
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