PHILADELPHIA — Ben Simmons was in a fairly terrible place: Wells Fargo Center, his old home that has turned against him. Every single time he touched the ball, boos screamed out. Plenty of expletives were heard.
But that is not the place Simmons was excited about after the Nets’ 115-106 loss to the 76ers on Tuesday night.
“I feel like I’m in a good place,” Simmons said after his first game in the arena in 520 days. “For me to come in here and just play basketball — I’m happy, I’m doing what I love. To be out there and have that experience was amazing.”
Simmons, playing his first game in Philadelphia since the 76ers’ Game 7 loss of the Eastern Conference Semifinals to the Hawks on June 20, 2021 — in which he shied away from a dunk, which led to criticism from Embiid and coach Doc Rivers — looked healthy both physically and mentally. He finished with 11 points on 4 of 7 shooting to go with 11 assists, seven rebounds, three blocks and three steals.
Simmons put a finger to his mouth — shushing the crowd — after rebounding his own miss and laying it up in the first half. Seemingly any time the crowd lost energy, a “F–k Ben Simmons” chant broke out to get the fans going again.
Simmons, who refused to report to the 76ers last season while citing mental health issues, expected the worst and came through unscathed.
“I thought it was going to be louder,” Simmons said.
The fans were never louder than when Simmons, who shot 33 percent from the foul line in the series loss to the Hawks, was sent to the foul line.
Simmons, who smiled during one of his trips to the foul line, went 3 of 6, delighting the crowd by missing his final two attempts in the third quarter.
“I thought he was in attack mode. He was aggressive,” Jacque Vaughn said. “Showed a lot of poise throughout the course of the night. Competed on both ends. I thought overall the experience for him to get through and get behind him, really good.”
The experience will help because the boos might never relent in Philadelphia.
The Nets, as a whole, are used to the jeering.
“That’s at every arena. Everybody wants to see our team fail,” Kevin Durant said. “Nobody likes Ben. Nobody likes [Kyrie Irving]. Nobody likes myself. It might be like that at every road arena. It’s just something we gotta deal with.”
Yuta Watanabe sat with right hamstring tightness. Vaughn called the emerging small forward day-to-day.
“We’ll see how he feels in the morning, but not ruled out [for Wednesday in Toronto] yet,” Vaughn said.
Center Nic Claxton, who missed Sunday’s win over the Grizzlies for personal reasons, returned to the starting lineup, scoring 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting.
Forward T.J. Warren, who has not played since December 2020 following multiple foot surgeries, has progressed past practicing alongside coaches, Vaughn said. Warren now is playing against players, though a timetable is still unclear.
“No setbacks, so overall T.J.’s been getting a good body of work in,” Vaughn said.
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