Ben Simmons was unstoppable as he led the Philadelphia 76ers to a 110-103 win over the Los Angeles Clippers at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The Sixers remain the most dominant force in home games this season, and with this win, they improved their home record to 25-2.
Simmons was aggressive right from the off, never shying away from taking a pop from the 3-point range, making terrific movements to give himself a good vantage point. The 23-year-old Australian got an enormous return for his audacity as he finished with season-high 22 field goal attempts, and racked up 26 points, along with 12 boards, and 10 assists. It was the Australian’s second straight triple-double, following 19 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds efforts against the Chicago Bulls on Monday.
Former Clippers star Tobias Harris also had a good game, as he finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists against his former team.
It was the first time that Kawhi Leonard faced the Sixers since knocking them out of the Eastern Conference semi-finals last season with a three-pointer buzzer-beater from the corner. And when he buried his signature jumper at the end of the second quarter, to cut the deficit, which was 12 points at one stage in the 2nd quarter, to just five points, it seemed that the two-time NBA finals MVP could orchestrate another comeback against the Sixers. He had two three-pointers in the second quarter during Clippers’ 15-4 run.
But Sixers had too many players in red-hot form on the day. Joel Embiid (26 pts, 9 rebounds) opened the second half with two three-pointers and Sixers managed to string together a 23-11 run to go almost out of sight. The fourth quarter belonged to Josh Richardson, who dropped 17 of his 24 points in the final 12 minutes.
If Sixers were on fire, the Clippers were cold, with almost all the players failing to turn up on the night. Paul George (11 points, 12 rebounds) had a terrible day at the office, going 2/12 from the field through the first three periods. Just put into context, the Clippers shot 9/22 in the final period when the Sixers were almost infallible.
It was the second defeat for Clippers in three games, and they fell to 37-17 on the season, while the Sixers improved to 34-21 on the season and sit at 5th in the Eastern Conference.
