Sixers Bell Ringer: Game 75 - New Win Streak Begins With Victory Over Nets

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

Bell Ringer Season Standings:

Joel Embiid - 24
Ben Simmons - 20
Jimmy Butler - 10
JJ Redick - 8
Tobias Harris - 3
Robert Covington - 1
Dario Saric - 1
T.J. McConnell - 1
Furkan Korkmaz - 1
Landry Shamet - 1
Corey Brewer - 1
Boban Marjanovic - 1
Mike Scott - 1
Shake Milton - 1

While baseball teams across the country experienced a fresh start with today’s MLB Opening Day festivities (shout-out Andrew McCutchen, Maikel Franco, and Rhys Hoskins for going yard today), the Sixers were looking for something of a fresh start of their own coming off two straight disappointing losses to Atlanta and Orlando. After making eight threes in the first quarter, the Sixers weathered a choppy, tech-filled middle of the game to ultimately prevail 123-110 over Brooklyn. Here are your Bell Ringer candidates:

Joel Embiid: 39 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 1 block, 2 turnovers

Embiid opted to go with the karate-style headband for the first time, saying post-game that he told Jimmy Butler and Mike Scott to wear them alongside him, and it looks like it was the right choice. JoJo knocked down three 3s and had 14 points in the FIRST FIVE MINUTES of the game. As Brooklyn called timeout, Embiid caught Jimmy’s attention and pointed at his headband as if to say, “I like this.”

As the game progressed, while weathering some questionable foul calls, Joel feasted against the small-ball lineups the Nets threw out there to try and counter Philadelphia’s size with speed. 6-foot-7 Rondae Hollis-Jefferson at center was not equipped to deal with all seven feet and 250 pounds of Joel Embiid. The Sixers big man dominated around the rim, made plentiful trips to the foul line (12-of-16 for the game), and made the correct decisions in distributing to his teammates, as needed. This is the type of performance that warrants his “most unstoppable player in the league” claim.

Boban Marjanovic: 16 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 0 turnovers

Like Joel, Boban had a huge mismatch when the Nets went with a small frontcourt. It took a while for the Sixers to feed Marjanovic down low, but they finally did during a stretch in the third quarter where he scored three buckets in the span of a couple minutes. Here were Boban’s thoughts post-game on facing such a smaller opponent:

“I’m more excited to be honest because I know my height advantage and it’s more exciting to see how he would try to defend me, and not just me, other guy, Joel too, it was fun to play.”

My favorite play was Hollis-Jefferson just giving Boban a wide-open shot at the foul line (which Bobi can obviously hit), but instead, he dribbled into RHJ and backed him down a couple more feet for an easy up-and-in. Simple, yet effective.

Oh, and Boban hit his second career 3-pointer! I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a crowd louder in the first quarter of a regular season game.

JJ Redick: 18 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover

Redick started out the game scorching hot, hitting his first six field goals, four of which came from behind the arc (one was later reviewed and changed from a two to a 3). He missed his final six shots, but the damage to the Nets (and the nets) had already been done. Redick also had a couple nice feeds to a cutting Tobias Harris and within his usual two-man game with Embiid.

Jimmy Butler: 9 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover

In the opening minute of the game, Jimmy hit one of those catch-and-shoot 3s that everyone is always calling to see more of, but it was a quiet night for him on the whole offensively. However, it was easily Butler’s best game defensively in quite some time. This performance showed me that Jimmy can flip the proverbial switch and still give a strong effort on that side of the ball, which is incredibly encouraging for the team’s postseason prospects.

Ben Simmons: 16 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers

This was a weird night for Ben, as it was his second career game fouling out (the first came on 4/10/18 in Atlanta). Despite the foul difficulties, it was a strong defensive effort from Simmons, as he was part of the contingent holding D’Angelo Russell to 6-of-19 shooting. He also recorded a couple standout plays. The one-handed dunk off a lob from Embiid was top-notch, as with his cerebral decision to pass to Redick in transition and immediately set a pick to free him in the corner.

I know he still makes some head-scratching turnovers sometimes, often because he’s trying to make highlight-reel plays, but Simmons really sees the game in a different way, It’s going to be crazy how good he is when he irons out the rough edges.

Mike Scott: 11 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 0 turnovers

Because he joined in with wearing a kung fu headband, Scott shot a perfect 3-of-3 from behind the arc. His hockey jersey of choice tonight was a Flyers custom one that read YOUNG BUL.