Sixers star Ben Simmons left Saturday’s game after five minutes with a sore back and will undergo an MRI today to determine the nature of the problem, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. League sources tell Woj there is “some level of concern” about the situation.
Simmons sat out Thursday with lower back pain, then aggravated the injury midway through the first quarter last night. He had an X-ray after leaving the game, and sources said he was “emotional” as he walked out of the X-ray room.
Losing Simmons for an extended stretch would be a huge setback for the Sixers as they fight for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Philadelphia is 35-22 after Saturday’s loss in Milwaukee, a game-and-a-half behind fourth-place Miami.
Simmons is averaging 16.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and 8.3 assists through 54 games. He also leads the NBA in steals at 2.1 per night.
What an enigma!! Has the abilities to be great but has the IQ of a Neanderthal when it comes to understanding what the team needs from him to win. Selfishness plays a hand with him too!
Whew. For a minute there, I thought you said “enema”
This Philly team is so bad, Dolan wouldn’t own it.
Boston dude 35-22 is not so bad
He creates 2x more 3 point plays than any other player in the league. He knows him shooting 32% from the field would be worse for the team. Basically would him playing like MCW or like Ben Simmons be better for the team?
Actually Ben Simmons has a very high basketball IQ. He would have to develop a mid-range and long-range shot to be in the MVP conversation, but he is a very good and effective player precisely because he focus on what he does best.
this is not good if he now has back issues for him to be emotional coming out of the X-ray room that does not seem good at all
MIL dominating PHL means less with Simmons gone. He seemed to hurt it after back-to-back successful sudden drives IMO… But that is what he does best, so not good news.
Embiid & Burks played poorly so no chance. Hubie is not accepting Burks yet, probably few are. Milton looks good but he may not be playoff-ready.
Only one game but if loss of Simmons continues we will get to see if this can be Embiid’s team. Philly didn’t seem to circle the wagons and play harder because they were missing Simmons so their road woes/chemistry issues continue.
That really sucks he was having a DPOY season, without him Philly won’t have a shot.
Let’s hope he gets better soon!
Philly hasn’t seen a shot it wanted to drop since 1983.
Excluding ping pong balls.
If didn’t like the x-ray all that much, the MRI may be even less happy.
Could be lucky to get him back for the playoffs.
Then again, a year ender will be brutal for any hope to get out of 1st round.
At least 2 of 4 big contracts are gone in July.
They will have to shake it up further this offseason. I’m in favor of trading a 1st and Horford for Buddy Hield. They need a legit shooter. May take more bc Horford looks like he is 45. That or swapping for Kevin Love, who still can shoot and grab boards and would be a much better fit with Embiid and Simmons. You could actually play them together at the same time. Could also do Barnes straight up, think Sac would do that. Brown is probably back next year blaming it on injuries, fit of Horford.
You had jimmy butler but your coach could not figure out how to make it all fit. 6ers let JJ walk…..and now they need shooting. Stupid. This team will be anemic offense because Ben can’t shoot beyond 3feet.
JJ got too much, and they somehow thought 4 yrs of Horford and 2 yrs of J Rich was better than 5 of Butler. It’s a valid argument. Make Celtics weaker, but Horford is just lost in Brown’s “system”. That system was dribble handoff idk what it is now, they have 1 shooter, Korkmaz.
Horford might make the all-bad-contract team– and ahead of KLove! Horford’s better than he’s showing but I see no sync with Embiid & yes he looks old.
Some think he may be injured. His shot is just not falling from any distance. He must have hung out with Fultz’s shooting coach. Dude looks broken. 1 for 7, that’s becoming the norm. He was chucking 3s and I’m watching like wth are you doing? Bolden at least shot mid 30s from 3. He saw 2 minutes of action. Idk once the process ‘ended’ Brown gave up on player development. Embiid is the perfect center to run the Triangle through. They never ran the 3 man game tho. When Ben is on the bench, they should be running triangle all day, but they again only have 1 shooter. Haven’t looked at next years FA crops but why not sign Waiters to a 2 year min and bring in JR Smith for a 1p day or the rest of the year. Drop Neto and O’Quinn. They are at least shot creators, will take 3s. Lakers model is a bunch of dudes that can play, as many guys on the roster than can actually play or were once all stars or fringe all stars or all team defense. It’s not a bad model. They made a good move with the GSW, but Zhaire and Mike Scott need to be traded in the offseason as well. They have few useful bench options, esp before their trade for GR3 and Alec. Frustrating team, literally no better than pre-process even with all the talent.
Actually Embiid looks to have more of a health issue… more systemic than an injury. Maybe his diet. He’s more off-balance-looking than he should be.
If they can get it straight they should be okay for the playoffs. That’s when talent pulls together, if they do.