Philadelphia 76ers: Ben Simmons is becoming a closer

Ben Simmons continues to pace the Philadelphia 76ers late in games.

The Philadelphia 76ers should not have won Thursday night’s game in Chicago. They were outplayed for most of the game, blowing a big lead early and struggling to defend the three-point line all night.

Bobby Portis and David Nwaba spearheaded the Bulls’ offensive explosion, going off for 38 and 21 points respectively. Both of those marks are career-highs. Zach LaVine chipped in one of his best outings this season, to boot, dropping 23 points.

Even with Chicago’s apparent disregard for the talent disparity between both teams, Philadelphia was able to hang offensively. Joel Embiid put up 30 points of his own, while Ben Simmons turned in yet another stellar outing, stringing together 32 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists.

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What Simmons did at the end of the game, though, is what will get most of the headlines. The Rookie of the Year favorite drilled a pair of free throws with under 10 seconds left, giving Philly a one-point lead and inevitably winning the game.

Simmons still isn’t a great shooter, but he’s much improved at the line. He’s also becoming more confident late in games, attacking the rim and pacing the offense down the stretch. That’s a far cry from what we saw earlier in the season.

I think we all remember Hack-a-Simmons and his utter avoidance of the free throw line. He would fade out of games late, and that was largely due to an unwillingness to go inside and take on contact. It was the one thing holding back an elite talent.

That’s no longer the case. In the Miami game before the All-Star break, Simmons led a sizable comeback effort with Embiid on the bench. He registered a triple-double, scoring a number of big baskets while playing elite defense on the other end. Above all else, it was Simmons that guided the Sixers to victory.

In general, that’s what you expect from your star player. Somebody who’s capable of taking possessions into his own hands and leading the charge late in games. That was where Simmons was falling short, and now he’s breaking out of that shell.

Confidence was always the primary concern with Simmons, which dates back to his time at LSU. He would defer to lesser talent too often, essentially being too unselfish. His primary strength comes as a distributor, but he can’t maximize that part of his game without posing a consistent scoring threat.

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Now that he’s embracing his status as the Sixers’ best playmaker on the perimeter, we’re beginning to see Simmons come into his own late in games. That’s huge, both for the playoffs and the Sixers’ long-term success.