No one knew what was going through Ben Simmons's head at that moment. Judging from the instant expression, his closest comrade-in-arms Embiid did not know, and could only watch this scene happen.
He was right under his opponent's basket, and no Eagles player could stop him, and with such a direct dunk opportunity, Simmons chose to pass the ball to Matisse Sable, who was farther away from the basket than he was.
It's a hot pot of boiling oil, but Sable is a normal person, he knows that in the NBA when a series comes to the end of the seventh, everyone in the room should be brave enough to take responsibility, he immediately attacked the basket and was stopped by an opponent foul, but unfortunately then stepped on the free throw line and made only 1 of 2 free throws.
In an interview after the game, Embiid said bluntly: "Honestly, I think the turning point of this game was – well, I don't even know how to describe that moment – we had a chance to shoot in an empty position, but it ended up only turning into a free throw..."
From an arithmetic point of view, the round mentioned by Embiid is actually only a loss of 1 point, and 1 point is not enough to bring the 76ers back to life. But basketball is not arithmetic, look at the point difference between the two sides at that time, the 76ers can equalize the score as long as they score, continue to put a lot of pressure on the Eagles, in the face of Ben Simmons's outrageous operation, his teammates feel not sorry for 1 point, but very confused.
Because of this, they were unable to win the seventh at home and watched the eagles fly away from Philadelphia.
We should certainly pay tribute to the eagle's tenacious hat-off.
In the first round of the playoffs, they were the only team to achieve the next game; against the East boss 76ers, they won three games in Philadelphia, and the young team is already scarred, with the five starting points de Andre Hunt season reimbursement, Bogdanovic knee injury, and Trey Young has recently been fighting with a shoulder injury. But they have done the counterattack again and again, and Trey Young and his team have been impressed again and again over the past 30 days.
The Hawks are the more deserving of the series victory because they are more tenacious and tenacious, because they play their best, but the Hawks really have to thank the 76ers for digging their own graves again and again, and you can never wake up a person who pretends to be asleep, and you can never save a team that wants to kill itself.
Ben Simmons knocked one nail after another on the coffin board, finally announcing the conclusion of the Philadelphia 76ers' 2020-21 season. They believe in the "process" for many years, but they never get a "result".
Since the start of the so-called "process" of the 2013-14 season, eight teams in the East have advanced to the playoffs more than 76ers; even since 2018, the year they returned to the playoffs, six teams have reached the Eastern Conference Finals during this period.
However, the 76ers, which have always been full of talent, are not among these 6 teams.
As a first-hand witness to these four playoff trips, Ben Simmons tried to explain his choice, "I thought Gallinari was going to come from behind me and John Collins was already out of the basket, so I thought the pass would create an opportunity for an empty dunk. ”
How vague was Simmons when he said this, the word he used to describe Gallinari was "assumed", its real meaning was "hypothesis", "assumption", "expectation", Ben Simmons had just smeared Gallinari behind him, he knew better than anyone that in that moment he had succeeded, but he still instigated, why?
Thinking about it, there was only one possibility: he felt that he was getting up and dunking, there was a possibility of being spoiled by Garina's foul, and in that case, he would be on the free throw line again - Ben Simmons had completely lost the courage to stand on the free throw line, he did not believe that he could make 2 free throws, so he refused to face any possibility of being ugly.
That was a round that didn't have to be considered at all, you can dunk directly under the basket, even if Gallinari pulls you hard, you may also send a "2+1", after all, with Simmons's height of 2 meters 11 and strong physical fitness, it is not easy to really hold him down in that place.
Well, in order to prevent the wrongful people, let's look back at this instantaneous picture again to judge whether there are other possibilities:
Trailing by two points, Simmons want to create a chance to come back? Impossible, the route to the three-point line was cut off, he himself said, thinking that there would be an "empty dunk";
Does he trust Sable's dunks more than he does? It doesn't make sense that he's 15cm taller than Sable, and in the regular season plus playoffs, Ben Simmons dunks 106 times and Sable dunks only 33 times;
Worried about other candidates who might be able to make up for it? Not to mention, Simmons was 1.85 meters in front of Trey Young, and violent striker John Collins could recover to interfere with Sable – in fact, he did.
I believe that at this point, the answer is also poor dagger.
Conan Doyle once famously said through Sherlock Holmes: "When you remove all the impossible answers, whatever remains, no matter how absurd it may seem, must be the truth." "The truth is, Ben Simmons instigated, he was not just in that moment, but more and more provocative throughout the playoffs...
Throughout the playoff journey, Ben Simmons' free throw shooting percentage was eventually locked in 73 and 25, with a accuracy of only 34.2%, and among all the players who have played in the NBA throughout the ages, Simmons' free throw shooting rate has set a record for a single-season playoff.
Or we could describe it in some other way, such as Ben Simmons conceding 48 goals in two rounds of the playoffs, while the Suns conceded a total of 29 goals so far in the playoffs after playing the first game of the Western Conference Finals, and Steve Nash's playoff career, a total of 120 games, has only conceded 44 goals.
In the case of penalties, Ben Simmons can easily beat a team alone, or beat the career of a legendary player in one season. What was even more terrifying than that was that he had lost the courage to defeat the demons of his heart.
Simmons said that his free throws are derived from "psychological problems", to a certain extent, we can accept this statement, 3 years ago, the first time in his life to play the playoffs, his free throws still have a 70.7% shooting rate, this season's regular season is at least more than 60%, but what kind of players dare to face the demons of the heart? Shark O'Neal once said that he knows that he is not good at free throws, but he can always score the ball in key moments, if you don't believe it, just try it.
Would Ben Simmons dare to say such a thing? He would only hide far away, and even O'Neal tickled his teeth after watching the game, Simmons really should be glad not to be a teammate with me, otherwise I would have beaten his out.
We don't advocate hands-on or, but for Ben Simmons' situation, you have no better choice than to scold the street, and everyone who has watched the game probably hates Simmons for not being able to express such emotions.
Simmons scored five points in the whole game, which is the fourth time in this series that he has scored a double figure in a single game in this series — and it's really hard to imagine any other All-Star player in NBA history who can still be at ease with such a situation.
Why can't Ben Simmons score? Because he doesn't even shoot at all, he doesn't have the long-range shooting skills, once he wants to score, he has to go deep into the basket, and every time he shoots deep into the basket, he may be like the Gallinari in his mind", who will send him to the free throw line with a foul.
So in the seven games of the entire series, Ben Simmons didn't concede a single goal in the fourth quarter, he totaled 3 of 3, and in the last quarter of the last 4 games, he didn't shoot a single shot...
And when a reporter asked after the game whether Simmons agreed with himself as an All-Star player, his influence in the playoffs was greatly reduced, Simmons even sounded to excuse himself, "So how many assists do I have?" And how did Trey Young shoot today? It seems that Ben Simmons was well aware that he had delivered 13 assists that day and had Trae Young on 5-of-23 shooting.
But he doesn't know if he remembers whose defense did Young, who had a shoulder injury, shoot that three-pointer with 2:31 left in the game and extend his lead from three to six?
Simmons is indeed an excellent defender, having been named to the league's defensive first team this season with 100 votes because he has a crushing-level advantage in stature and athleticism on the guard line, and his ability to give opponents defenders a powerful sense of suffocation.
In terms of physical condition, Ben Simmons's height of 2 meters 11, the knife carved axe-like muscle lines, and even the rare speed and explosiveness at his height, such physical conditions, looking at the whole league, may only be comparable to LeBron James and Antetokounmpo, but those two players have won 6 MVP trophies combined, what about Simmons? In his fourth season, Ben Simmons was pleasantly surprised to find that his scoring, rebounding, and assist stats had set a new career low.
An All-Star player who is not yet 25 years old will have such a performance, which is really strange...
For the talented Simmons, the innate absolute talent may even be killing his basketball career, he is in a state of indifference to whether it is necessary to strengthen the projection for many years, and after the 76ers eliminated, the American media The Ringer repeated the old story, pointing out that in the playoffs, Simmons shot 67 times with his right hand, and the left hand only 9 times, so accustomed to using the right hand, why should he resolutely use the left hand to shoot?
But fans who know Ben Simmons know that when he was still in Louisiana, he was found to prefer to use his right hand to complete the end, and in the only college season, his layups, dunks, throws, hooks and other offensive methods, 81.5% of them were done with his right hand, and the left hand accounted for only 3.8%.
Five years on, Ben Simmons never considered changing shooters — it was okay for Simmons to jump up and dunk, but it was impossible for Simmons to jump out of his comfort zone.
His former teammate J.J. Redick, as an NBA all-time shooter, was once confused, "I've seen Simmons shoot with his right hand, he can obviously shoot better with his right hand, he does everything else with his right hand, I don't understand why he has to stick to his left hand to shoot." 」 ”
We're not going to blame Simmons on all the reasons for all the 76ers' defeats: Embiid is plagued by injuries, Seth Curry is played defensively, rivers' adjustments will still be half a beat slower, but just as Redick doesn't understand Ben Simmons, one of the biggest geniuses on their team is ultimately their biggest mystery.
The night he was eliminated, but after he asked the reporter how many assists he had, Ben Simmons continued, "I don't want you to say that number." We did lose, it didn't feel good, but it's really not easy to win, and you can see that the Nets are all ended by the Bucks, so it's really not easy to win. I tried too. ”
this...... He's really a hard-to-understand person.
But look at the fighting spirit displayed by the diminutive Trey Young on the other side, and then look at ben Simmons's hollow eyes, everything is easy to understand again.
It's a pity that the god-like body of that day contained a coward's heart.