If the Nets don’t win Game 3, there’s no level in enjoying Ben Simmons in Game 4.
In reality, it will be negligent, irresponsible and downright damaging for them to play him in an elimination sport given the circumstances.
No staff in NBA historical past has ever come again from a 3-0 playoff deficit, and the Nets, who’ve up to now been unable to resolve the Celtics’ league-best protection, have lacked chemistry and cohesion all season, and have been completely outcoached by their former assistant Ime Udoka, don’t seem like a staff positioned to develop into the primary.
Yet the Nets, who the Celtics have bullied with their physicality via Games 1 and a couple of, suppose Game 4 — going through a possible 3-0 deficit — is one of the best time to place Simmons on the ground.
Let me remind you that the Sixers rushed Simmons again from a nerve impingement in his decrease again in February 2020, a call that finally value him about rather less than a month of motion and would have value him all the season had the NBA not gone on hiatus then returned within the Orlando bubble.
That impingement just isn’t a factor of the previous: He cited decrease again ache throughout his coaching camp holdout with Philadelphia earlier this season, and his decrease again flared up weeks after his Feb. 10 arrival in Brooklyn through the James Harden commerce, this time as a herniated disk that required an epidural for Simmons to lastly begin feeling higher.
Let me remind you Simmons — in keeping with Nets head coach Steve Nash, whose phrases at this level must be taken with a grain of salt — obtained that epidural in mid-March, solely began training with contact on April 18 and nonetheless has but to play five-on-five together with his new teammates.
And let me remind you that the Celtics have been so bodily on protection that they’ve turned Kevin Durant into MarShon Brooks.
Durant led the NBA with 29.9 factors per sport however is taking pictures simply 13-of-41 from the sector via the primary two video games of this collection as a result of the Celtics are “hitting him” when he doesn’t have the ball and sending two or three our bodies all over the place he goes.
And the Nets wish to throw Simmons, who hasn’t performed basketball in over 10 months, hasn’t practiced 5-on-5 with full contact (once more, if we consider Nash), and whose again can’t probably be 100% only a couple months faraway from struggling a herniated disk, out onto the ground towards Boston’s bruisers?
It’s a nasty look, particularly when you think about this, new from Saturday morning’s shootaround: Simmons hasn’t even practiced with the gamers who he’ll take the ground with if he does play in Game 4.
Veteran guard Goran Dragic, who the Nets must play 40 minutes in the event that they wish to have an opportunity in Game 3, stated he has but to play with Simmons as a result of Simmons is barely training with the stay-ready group. There aren’t even 9 gamers within the stay-ready group (the Nets’ group of end-of-the-rotation gamers), which is why Simmons has but to play five-on-five,
So if Dragic is telling the reality, which means Simmons’ first time enjoying with any of the Nets’ common rotation gamers will include the collection on the road in a possible elimination Game 4.
“It’s tough,” Dragic stated after Saturday’s shootaround. “It’s not the best-case scenario for us because we don’t have time, but at the same time, we have to try. We have to put him up to speed.”
Dragic stated he can already envision how he’d play with Simmons however therein lies the cruel actuality: Two days earlier than the Nets plan on throwing their All-Star ahead into the hearth, there stays zero actual work that has been completed in apply that will counsel a clean transition of any type in Game 4.
“You’re right,” Dragic stated. “You have to practice that to build that chemistry. Unfortunately, we don’t have time, so you have to try. We’ll see.”
And then, in fact, there’s the psychological well being facet of all of it. Simmons stated in his introductory press convention that he’s been coping with psychological well being points since lengthy earlier than he posted a dud towards the Atlanta Hawks in final yr’s playoffs. But that’s the final time he performed a professional basketball sport, and one has to think about that’s the place these psychological well being points swelled.
In that collection, he by no means took greater than six pictures in any of the ultimate three video games and turned down an open layup in Game 7 to present a teammate a harder shot that was missed on a game-swinging possession. The 76ers, who had been heavy favorites, misplaced that collection after constructing a 2-1 lead, and Simmons’ teammates and head coach Doc Rivers threw him below the bus proper after that sport.
And now the Nets wish to throw Simmons proper again into the stress cooker, trotting him half-healthy out onto the ground with the burden of a whole championship-or-bust season on the road.
“I have to get on the floor and help this team win,” Simmons stated after apply on Friday. “I got traded to the Brooklyn Nets and that’s what they need me to do, and that’s where my focus is right now.”
If the Nets really need Simmons to play in Game 4, that they had higher come out and win Game 3. Game 3 for all intents and functions is a must-win, not simply because NBA historical past says no staff has ever come again from being down 0-3, however as a result of that historical past would additionally make placing Simmons (not 100%) on the ground probably the most negligent determination the franchise may probably make.
Nash stated Simmons didn’t play in any respect throughout Friday’s apply and that his again has had no setbacks from the four-on-four′s he’s performed up to now. A four-on-four, nevertheless, just isn’t remotely in the identical ballpark as a five-on-five towards probably the most bodily protection the Nets have seen this season. And if the Nets can’t win Game 3 with out Simmons, there’s really no level in wheeling him on the market for 15-to-20 minutes in Game 4, which makes Game 3, for each motive possible, a should win.
“I think [Game 3] is not a must win, but every game is a must win in the playoffs, so I don’t necessarily subscribe to [Game 3 being a must-win],” Nash stated. “You don’t go in and say Game 1′s not a must win. You are trying to win every single game. So our mentality shouldn’t change. We are trying to win every game.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com