3 observations: Ben Simmons, Sixers shut down Luka Doncic, Mavericks

The Philadelphia 76ers were able to pick up a big win on Tuesday over the Toronto Raptors and they were looking to continue their momentum against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday. They did so in a big way as they were able to shut Doncic down in a 111-97 win at home.

Ben Simmons was a big reason for that as he was smothering on defense all night and he finished with 15 points and seven assists. Joel Embiid led the way with 23 points and nine rebounds, but the All-Star starter struggled to shoot the ball again as he shot just 5-for-20 from the floor.

Seth Curry played well and he added 15 points on 3-for-3 shooting from deep and Dwight Howard added 14 and eight rebounds off the bench.

With that said, here are the three observations in this one:

Simmons vs. Doncic

This is the matchup to watch whenever these two teams face off. The two of them are very similar players in the way they can get their teammates involved, they are both good rebounders, and All-Star talents. The differences are that Doncic is obviously the better shooter and Simmons is the much better defender, but the two of them are always fun to watch. Simmons’ defense against Doncic clearly frustrated him in this one. Every shot that Doncic took was contested and he was not able to find any clean looks. Some credit has to go to Shake Milton as well who did a good job of helping Simmons when he was in the game, but Simmons was the one who made life miserable for him all night long in this one and he put him fully in jail. Then, offensively, Simmons was consistently attacking the basket downhill and that is what the Sixers need every night from him.

Activity on defense

This was mostly due to both Simmons and Embiid being as great as they are on the defensive end, but the Sixers were flying all over the place on that end all game long. Curry was terrific in the early going against the guy he was traded for, Josh Richardson, and the rest of the Sixers were really active on that end. The Mavericks are a very good offensive team and the way that Philadelphia was able to shut them down all night was something special to watch. The Mavs got some triples to fall in the second half, but even then, they were contested. Guys will make shots in this league. At this moment in time, Philadelphia’s best offense remains getting out in transition and being able to force turnovers and running. The Sixers will need more of this type of effort on a consistent basis if they are going to seriously contend in the East.

Bench turning a corner?

The bench unit has obviously struggled for a couple of weeks now, but on Thursday, they got off to a good start in order to help the team when they needed a spark. Howard hopped off the bench and he provided a boost immediately on offense with two power moves in the paint to convert two And-1’s and he also had an athletic block on the other end as well. He looked like he was turning back the clock a bit and he had a classic dunk in the fourth as an exclamation point. On top of that, Furkan Korkmaz was able to knock down a triple in the second quarter as he looks to continue to get into a hot streak shooting the ball. Even Milton was aggressive getting to the basket and setting up his teammates. He struggled shooting the ball, but there was a play he made for Howard where he drew a lot of attention and that is a good sign for the bench’s offense.

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