Ben Simmons’ aggression has earned him the Philadelphia 76ers’ player of the week award.
It would be easy to give Joel Embiid this award every week because of his MVP caliber season. By recognizing that fact, it’s important to acknowledge other Philadelphia 76ers who impressed this past week and Ben Simmons did that with his aggressive play.
Player of the Week: Ben Simmons
Simmons had a double-double in Philly’s win against the Boston Celtics. He finished with 15 points, three rebounds, 11 assists, two steals, one block, two turnovers, and five fouls, while shooting 7-10 from the field and 1-3 from the free throw line. Outslide of the foul problem, Simmons had a solid game against the Sixers’ division rival.
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Philadelphia won the first matchup against the Detroit Pistons and Simmons had his highest scoring output of the season. He had 20 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, three steals, one block, two turnovers, and three fouls, while converting 5-7 from the floor and 10-12 from the foul line. His 12 free throw attempts are a season high for the point guard.
The Pistons defeated the 76ers in their second matchup and it was the one bad game from Simmons this past week. He ended with 11 points, four rebounds, four assists, two steals, two turnovers, and four fouls, while going 5-9 from the floor, 0-1 from the 3-point line, and 1-3 from the charity stripe. It should be noted that Philly was without Embiid in this game.
Philadelphia was able to beat the Los Angeles Lakers thanks in large part to Simmons’ third triple-double of the season. The point guard finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, one steal, one block, one turnover, and two fouls. He also shot 8-15 from on field goal attempts and when 1-2 from the foul line. The 15 shot attempts from Simmons are a season high.
Honorable mention
Tobias Harris gets this week’s honorable mention because of his red hot shooting from downtown and for hitting the game-winner against the Lakers. Through four games, he shot 11-18 from deep. He averaged 22.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.3 steals, 1.0 block, 3.5 turnovers, and 2.3 fouls.
Simmons was most aggressive this past week than at any other point this season and that’s what the Philadelphia 76ers need from him. For the past four games, he’s averaged 15.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 8.0 assists, 2.0 steals, 0.8 blocks, 1.8 turnovers, and 3.5 fouls.