Ben Simmons is a Young Magic and the Hawks Suck

I’ll be honest, going into Friday’s nights matchup with the Atlanta Hawks, I thought the Sixers winning streak was coming to a close. Now, it wasn’t because we have begun our late season journey without Joel Embiid but more because of Ben Simmons’ PUBG comment with Karl Anthony-Towns. I thought the Hawks would show up with some vigor, ready to get back at the Rookie Simmons for humiliating them. I was wrong, they stink:

After leading by six at halftime, the Sixers used a 39-15 advantage in the 3rd quarter to blow this one wide open and it was lights out in Atlanta. Philly controlled this one by 20+ points for much of the second half and if it weren’t for late 4th quarter, scrub fuck around time, the route would have been much worse than the final score indicated. To put in perspective how out of hand this one got, Richaun Holmes was taking multiple threes that were dished by Furkan Korkmaz. I think that’s the only accurate way to describe how bad it was.

Simmons shouldered the load in the absence of Embiid, posting a triple double (13, 12 & 11) without stepping foot on the court in the 4th quarter. Despite watching Benny almost every night, I still can’t get over the stranglehold he already has on the league. He’s less than one season in, yet always one play ahead of everyone else. During his post-game press conference, he was asked if any of the passes he’s made this year surprised him. He noted that only one had surprised him and I’d really love to know which assist that was. Not to be overly dramatic but he is the Australian version of Magic Johnson:

https://twitter.com/MyNBAUpdate/status/979902863882076160

It also helps the cause when you’re playing a team as atrocious as the Hawks. Is that what it was like playing the Sixers during peak process years? Two of their veterans, Ersan Ilysova and Marco Bellinelli got pawned off to us and Dennis Schroeder is out for the year. Friendly reminder that the Sixers aren’t the only NBA team that employed the tanking strategy, they were just better at it then everybody else. Now, we’re the team that beats up on bottom dwellers and it feels so, so fantastic.

Oh, and this happened:

By Aidan Powers | March 31, 2018