Simmons leads Sixers against Nuggets (Mar 25, 2018)
As he puts the finishing touches on one of the most unique rookie seasons in NBA history, Ben Simmons is showing no signs of slowing down.
That is a scary thought for opponents, including the Denver Nuggets, who head to Wells Fargo Arena on Monday night for a showdown with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Simmons enters the game with triple-doubles in four of his last seven games and 10 on the season. The three games he failed to register triple-doubles? One he missed by an assist and three rebounds, one he missed by two rebounds, and one he missed by scoring six points despite adding 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
Simmons -- who ranks second in NBA history in triple-doubles by a rookie -- is averaging 13.2 points, 10.6 assists and 9.0 rebounds.
Better yet for head coach Brett Brown: The 76ers are 10-3 on the month, barreling head-first toward their first playoff berth in more than a half-decade.
"He has two things going for him. I feel most times I see what he sees because I know the plays," Brown said. "I feel like I see what he sees a lot of the time and then he's got the strength and guts to throw stuff where they're rockets. He sees a few plays ahead and he's got the vision and then he can at 6-10 throw darts. He really throws passes with velocity so a lot of times it doesn't entirely surprise me."
Denver, which boasts a unicorn of its own in multi-talented young center Nikola Jokic, enters the matchup hoping to slow down Philadelphia's momentum, and to continue building theirs as they head down the stretch.
The Nuggets have won two straight, including a 33-point throttling of Chicago and a 108-100 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, when Jokic and running mate Jamal Murray each had 25 points.
The Nuggets, who had played eight of their last 12 on the road and are on the down side of a seven-game road trip that includes two more games at the Toronto Raptors and Oklahoma City Thunder, need every win they can get as the regular season nears its end.
Despite being seven games above .500, Denver finds itself in last place in the overcrowded Western Conference Northwest Division and one game behind Utah in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.
Just 4 1/2 games separate the Nuggets from the Northwest Division-leading Portland Trail Blazers.
"This team still believes," Nuggets coach Mike Malone said. "There's a lot of basketball still to be played. Before we worry about what everybody else is doing, we have to handle our own business, and thank goodness we were able to do that."
After the matchup, Philadelphia hosts the visiting New York Knicks on Wednesday.
The Sixers had lost three straight and five of their previous six games against teams with winning records before Saturday. They are the Eastern Conference's fourth-place team and are on the verge of clinching their first postseason appearance since the 2011-12 season.
Denver stays on the road with its Tuesday matchup at the Eastern Conference-leading Raptors.
