Nets

The Brooklyn Nets, sans Ben Simmons, went into Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night and delivered a 129-100 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, ...

Avoiding one and covering up some mistakes could reveal a lot about this club's nature and perhaps its ability to course-correct come playoff time. Do the Sixers flush Thursday's loss and immediately embark on their next torrid run? That made it easy to buy Philadelphia's chemistry development as a full-fledged success, but it's easy to feel good during a string of blowout victories. Say what you want about the polarizing point guard—Sixers fans said plenty on Thursday night—but he might be the league's most versatile stopper, and he's an impact playmaker. Mills, Curry, Goran Dragic and Cam Thomas can all hit on any given night, as can scoring big LaMarcus Aldridge, who missed Thursday's tilt with a hip injury. Brooklyn's offense can be overwhelming when Irving and Durant share the court.

Kyrie Irving had 22 points for the Nets, James Harden, newly acquired by the 76ers, shot 3 ...

The Yankees and the Red Sox have a rivalry. Still, the 76ers and the Nets are now connected in an odd way, having swapped disgruntled stars. “Both of us want the same thing, right? He scored 50 points against the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday, and he and Durant combined for 47 on Thursday. The 76ers were awful. The Nets were amazing. Before the game, Rivers was asked if he thought the 76ers and the Nets constituted a rivalry. Maybe, he said, the 76ers needed to get their butts kicked. (The 76ers had a lot of lackluster dribble handoffs.) But Harden’s performance against the Nets — 3 of 17 from the field, 11 points, 4 turnovers — did little to remedy his reputation as a player who is prone to struggling in big games. Barring a change in public policy, that will remain the case in the postseason. Now employed by the Nets, Simmons changed into casual clothing for his new team’s game against the 76ers on Thursday night and soon found a spot on the visitors’ bench.

If you tuned in expecting brilliant basketball from two NBA titans, you'd have been disappointed. But if you tuned in for the spectacle of it all, well, ...

By then, the boos were being directed at the Sixers, and Simmons was enjoying a laugh on the bench with Durant and Drummond. … It’s hard for you to chant at Ben Simmons when you’re losing by that much.” He declined to speak to the media afterward, presumably because he was in no mood to explain it all, or perhaps because he was annoyed at the Sixers’ sudden lack of rhythm and ball movement. Simmons, wearing a black Louis Vuitton, hockey-style jersey with bright-yellow trim, seemed generally unfazed by the boos and the chants, which would seem to bode well for whenever he returns again, presumably in uniform and ready to play. These teams won’t meet again this season, unless it’s in the playoffs when they’ll need Simmons at his best. Things got nastier once the game started, with fans repeatedly breaking into loud chants of, “F--- Ben Simmons!” At least one heckler near the Nets’ bench was ejected during the game. Harden’s 11 points marked his lowest output as a Sixer, and he had nearly as many turnovers (four) as assists (five). The Nets s kipped away with a shockingly easy 129–100 victory, and no one really learned anything, except perhaps this: The Sixers still have much work to do if they want to make a serious run at the Eastern Conference title. Both teams have championship aspirations, if they can smooth out the rough edges in time, and yet no one has much time at all. And so tonight was good for us, and we get an opportunity to come down to reality.” And they will almost certainly start that run from the play-in tournament, where one bad night (and/or Irving’s ineligibility) could sink them. Just a lot of noise and angst and brouhaha and boos.

Less than two minutes into the game, Kevin Durant demonstrated that the Nets were wired exactly how Nash wanted them to be. Durant stormed down the lane, threw ...

“We just have to pick up more, man; just have to pick up more,” said Irving. “But I think the mentality in our locker room is just one day at a time, and control what we can control. And when we have games like this is a time to focus, limit all the distractions coming into this arena. I’m starting to see it more and more last couple of years since I’ve been here that fans are starting to travel and support us so we’re definitely going to need that going forward.” I just figured I was just excited about the play and those two guys understand to play in an environment like that and have a big play so I was just letting everybody know I was here and I was ready to hoop tonight.” Durant went on to lead the Nets with 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting and post a double-double with 14 rebounds plus seven assists and two steals. These are the types of games that you want to play in and that you get excited for. “Our fans travel,” said Durant. “It was pretty remarkable to see Brooklyn fans because the label on us is that we don’t have any fans so to hear them in a huge arena like this fighting against another energetic crowd like the Sixers fans it was great to see.

Losses like the ones the Sixers suffered against the Nets can be blessings in disguise this time of year. James Harden and Doc Rivers need to make sure ...

Late in the game, with the Nets up 30, the Sixers’ 2016 No. 1 overall pick made it a point to stand up from the bench and retrieve a loose ball that had bounded in his direction. But Durant and Irving have made their careers out of games like this, and the Sixers don’t have any obvious answers for combatting either. “But you have to play together to win the game. With Harden slogging through a miserable shooting night and struggling to create space off the dribble, the Sixers looked in desperate need of another player who could draw some defensive attention. Simmons may have been the focal point for the home fans, but it was the road players who clearly had the revenge factor working in their favor. At the end of the day, though, the whole reason to care about any of it in the first place was the basketball. The inclusion of Curry in the mid-February trade that brought Harden to Philly looked particularly unfortunate on Thursday night. The gate receipts go to the villains as much as they do the heroes, and the paying customers were not unjustified in their desire to get a few things off their chest. What makes Brooklyn such a dangerous matchup for the Sixers is its ability to negate Embiid’s impact on the defensive end. “We have to get better in a quick period of time.” As dysfunctional as the Nets have looked this season, anybody who is looking past them might want to rewind the tape from Thursday night. Whether or not the extra ounces of precaution were justified, they did make you stop and marvel at the ridiculousness of it all.

PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers have aspirations of winning a championship as they brought in James Harden in a blockbuster trade from the Brooklyn Nets ...

“For us we’ve been rolling and playing well, so that does affect us, but, it was also a wake-up call for us that we’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Tobias Harris. “We’ve got to get better in a quick period of time. The Nets got big games out of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Seth Curry on the night and the Sixers have to learn from this. PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers have aspirations of winning a championship as they brought in James Harden in a blockbuster trade from the Brooklyn Nets back on Feb. 10.

The Ben Simmons Philly return was a strange one, as the Sixers-Nets game had as much intrigue during the actual...

Combination of them making shots and the ball not moving helped them offensively,” said Harden. At this point, all the Sixers can do is learn from this outing and move on. From then on, it was tough for us to actually gain a flow and a rhythm there to cut the lead,” Harris said postgame. When all was said and done they walked out of the Wells Fargo Center with a 129-100 victory. We had no intensity defensively, ball wasn’t moving, we didn’t do a great job of making the extra pass. Thanks to strong showings from Durant and Kyrie Irving, the Nets jumped out to a big lead early and never looked back.

Simmons, who has yet to make his Nets debut, was on the bench for the game and had no tangible impact on the outcome, but his teammates said they used the boos ...

“We look at Ben as our brother, so we knew that this was a hostile environment and we knew he didn’t have an opportunity to play, so we wanted to come out there and have them focus on the court more so than just always focusing on him. “He looked good to me. So they focused on the court tonight, and it’s hard for you chant at Ben Simmons when you’re losing by that much.”