PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia 76ers are halfway to an NBA Playoffs first-round series victory after a much more dominant performance over the Washington Wizards than their first contest last weekend. Philadelphia leads the series 2-0.
This time, Ben Simmons and his teammates made it look easy. Game 2 was no contest, as the Sixers rolled to a 120-95 victory. An 8-0 run at the end of the second quarter put the Sixers up by 14 at the half, and Doc Rivers' squad never looked back.
Joel Embiid and Simmons put up 22 points each, combining for 19 of 27 from the field (70.4%), while Tobias Harris added 19 of his own with a nine-for-13 performance.
"We have so many different weapons and we’re figuring out how to use all of them," said Simmons. "For defense they guard a certain way, and then we’re still going to run our stuff and we’re still going to have options. It depends on what options we want.”
Simmons' performance comes after Rivers defended him in the face of criticism over his offensive output. Even with only six points in the playoff opener, Simmons pulled down 15 rebounds and dished out 15 assists.
"I thought it was pretty hard to get 15 assists and 15 rebounds in the NBA in the playoffs," Simmons said. "I thought that was pretty impressive, and we won. What y’all want?"
Rivers said he was happy to see Simmons open for scoring opportunities. With the Wizards focusing even more on Joel Embiid in Game 2, Simmons had the chance to get to the basket more often in the first half.
"They kind of changed what they were doing on Joel, which gave Ben more room," Rivers said. "They were also spraying back out to our shooters, which gave Ben more room. He was great. He took advantage of it."
The game was plagued by injuries, as both Harris and Seth Curry went down with foot or ankle ailments for the Sixers.
Harris returned to the game after his foot problem.
Curry did not return to the game after enduring left ankle soreness.
But the most noteworthy injury, and off-court incident, happened with the Wizards' Russell Westbrook.
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Westbrook went down after colliding with Furkan Korkmaz early in the fourth quarter. He limped off the floor and was restrained by security after a fan threw popcorn at him as he was headed under the tunnel.
The series now shifts to Washington for Game 3 on Saturday and Game 4 on Monday. The Sixers are hoping there won't be a Game 5 in Philadelphia. Two more wins will end this series and put the Sixers in the second round.
The Sixers got a big boost from the home crowd in the first two games, and now Embiid is bracing for a different type of environment in the nation's capital.
"I love playing on the road, because people boo you," Embiid said. "They talk trash. And for me, personally, it makes me play even better, just because I want to shut them up."