Joel Embiid reacts to matchup with Ben Simmons after Sixers beat Nets
PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers played host to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday in another emotionally charged atmosphere at the Wells Fargo Center. This was no ordinary game. This was the first Joel Embiid vs. Ben Simmons matchup.
Ever since the trade at the 2022 deadline, the Nets and the Sixers had matched up two times in the regular season before Wednesday’s contest. Simmons didn’t play in the first matchup in March of 2022 and Embiid didn’t play in the second contest back on Nov. 22.
This was the first time Embiid and Simmons went at each other and when Simmons was switched onto Embiid, the entire arena rose to a crescendo anticipating what would happen. Simmons got the best of Embiid a few times on his defensive end, but Embiid won the battle and the war in a 137-133 win for the Sixers.
“The game was good today,” said Embiid when asked about facing Simmons. “Obviously, it was about the Sixers and the Nets and I felt the game, we could have been better. Defensively, we were just not good today then, obviously, we could have put the game away, and we didn’t and then we gave them a chance. In those situations, we just got to do a better job.”
It was a predictable answer from Embiid as he and the Sixers just want to move on from the whole Simmons thing, but there is no question that things felt a bit different when those two matched up.
“I was not,” Embiid swore. “If you look at the way I play, it doesn’t matter, whatever matchup every single night. Whoever’s in front of me, it’s always the same aggression and it’s always the same aggression as far as trying to score the ball. Tonight, that was the same thing. I missed a lot of shots today which hasn’t happened in a while so I had a bad night. I’m happy we got the win.”
Friends are now enemies #Sixers pic.twitter.com/BNyacD1Tgb
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) January 26, 2023
Embiid can say what he wants, but it was obvious that he wanted to go at his former teammate. There was a different aggression from the big fella when Simmons switched on to him.
“Nothing,” Embiid continued to swear. “Like every single night, I just fricking kill whoever’s in front of me. My mentality is always about scoring and if I get doubled, make the right pass, but if I get played one on one, I see an opportunity to go score. I’m gonna go score.”
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Player grades: Joel Embiid, Sixers defeat Ben Simmons, Nets at home
