Sixers Bell Ringer: Game 24

For a refresher on what constitutes a Bell Ringer, please reference the initial post.

Bell Ringer Season Standings:

Joel Embiid - 9
Ben Simmons - 4
JJ Redick - 4
Jimmy Butler - 3
Robert Covington - 1
Dario Saric - 1
T.J. McConnell - 1.

The Sixers had 8 guys score in double figures and looked like a cohesive unit playing together. The Wizards...well, they didn’t. There were basically a choose-your-own-adventure amount of options for Bell Ringer tonight in Philadelphia’s 123-98 win over Washington.

Ben Simmons: 13 points, 8 rebounds, 10 assists, 1 steal

Admittedly, the 6 turnovers were bad; after the game, Simmons chalked some of the missed lobs to Jimmy Butler up to still adjusting to playing together. But everything else from the Aussie was brilliant. He had a perfect shooting night, going 5-5 from the floor and 3-3 from the foul line. He did connect on one lob with Butler from half court, flashed a delightful between-the-legs drop-off to Joel Embiid for a three, and slammed home a huge alley-oop finish for an and-one off a Furkan Korkmaz feed. Strong defense and forceful surges in transition, it was a terrific night for Simmons, who only missed out on a triple-double due to the starters sitting the entire fourth quarter.

Joel Embiid: 16 points, 15 rebounds, 3 blocks

Embiid had an unusually poor night at the charity stripe (5-10), but was otherwise dominant for the Sixers in his brief 22 minutes of action. He gobbled up every available rebound on both ends (5 offensive boards in 22 minutes is outstanding). A couple of his blocks displayed great defensive instincts not to foul, particularly the play where he maintained his verticality to snuff out Kelly Oubre Jr.’s drive to the hoop. JoJo had a double-double a mere three minutes into the second quarter. While by no means a perfect stat, Embiid’s remarkable +27 plus/minus mark in the first half was a fair indication of just how effective he was on the court Friday night.

Jimmy Butler: 11 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals

The other half of the headband-wearing “defensive brothers” was all over the court. Butler chased down 4 offensive rebounds and was an absolute ball hawk on the defensive end. The sequence when he read Washington’s play, came off his man to disrupt the pass, and raced out for a breakaway dunk was the perfect marriage of a guy in his physical prime who also has the years under his belt to hone his defensive instincts.

T.J. McConnell: 15 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals

An opponent that doesn’t look completely into the game is the perfect recipe for success for a leave-it-all-out-on-the-court guy like McConnell. T.J. was able to drive to the rim with ease and reach his spots on the court to knock down open jumpers. We even saw the return of Three-J when he nailed a triple from the corner. The normally workmanlike McConnell also flashed some highlight-reel material with this fancy behind-the-back dish to Simmons for a dunk in transition.

Shake Milton: 5 points, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block

Hitting a three-pointer on your first NBA touch is good enough for inclusion here. Milton also had a couple assists, including a very nice drive-and-dish underneath to Amir Johnson. The arena sound system even had the “shake, shake, shake” sound clip from the famous KC and the Sunshine Band song queued up for him. Welcome aboard officially, Shake!