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The Nets and 76ers finally meet since the Harden for Simmons trade
By VINCENT DAVIS Special to the AmNews
When the Nets and Philadelphia 76ers made an NBA trade deadline deal that sent Nets guard James Harden to the Sixers for forward Ben Simmons with other pieces involved, one of the first questions basketball fans asked was “when do the two teams face each other?”
Tonight is the answer. The Nets will be in Philadelphia tonight to take on the 76ers in the first meeting between them since the trade. The Nets, who played the Charlotte Hornets on the road on Tuesday, fell to under .500 (32-33) with a tough 126-120 loss in Boston on Sunday versus the Celtics.
While Harden has played at the level of a league MVP—which he won in 2018—alongside this season’s leading most valuable player candidate, 76ers center Joel Embiid, Simmons has yet to suit up for the Nets, working on his conditioning and mental wellness. Harden is ready to take the floor against former teammates Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving; Simmons is gradually preparing for his Nets debut at a yet-to-be publicly stated date.
“He’s just doing some light shooting, and just physical therapy,” said Nets head coach Steve Nash before Sunday’s game. Nash revealed that Simmons has had a back issue that he described as a “little flare-up.” The 25-year-old
No. 1 overall pick in 2016 hasn’t played in an NBA game since last
June when the 76ers were eliminated in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Atlanta Hawks.
Simmons felt he was made the scapegoat by his former head coach Doc Rivers and fans, and last summer demanded a trade. Harden, 32, who forced a trade from the Houston Rockets to the
Nets in January of 2021, wanted out of Brooklyn a year later. On Monday, he played his fifth game with the 76ers, a 121-106 win against the
Chicago Bulls to improve the Sixers’ record to 40-24, second best in the
East. Embiid led the way with 43 points and 14 rebounds. The Nets were the No. 9 seed in the conference as of Tuesday.
Philly was 5-0 since acquiring
Harden going into last night’s (Wednesday) game hosting the
Phoenix Suns. He was averaging 24.6 points, 12.4 assists and 7.4 rebounds as a Sixer. He also tied Reggie Miller for third on the NBA’s all-time three-pointers made list with 2,560.
The Nets and 76ers will meet tonight for the first time since last month’s trade in which Brooklyn dealt guard James Harden to Philadelphia for forward Ben Simmons (Bill Moore photos) Heading into last night’s game versus the Dallas Mavericks on the road, Knicks forward Obi Toppin had missed the previous three games with a strained left hamstring (Bill Moore photo)
The Knicks try to find wins and confidence on the road
By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor
It has been a dispiriting 2022 for the Knicks. They went into Dallas last night (Wednesday) to play the Mavericks with a record of 27-38, 11 games under .500 and an excruciating 10-19 in 29 games since the turn of the new year. On Jan. 1 the Knicks were 17-19 with optimistic visions of being a playoff team. At that time there were still 45 games remaining on their schedule.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau’s squad was sitting in the 10th spot in the Eastern Conference but only one game behind the then 8th seed Washington Wizards, just two below the 7th seed Charlotte Hornets and trailing the 6th seed Philadelphia 76ers by a close three. But February was the Knicks’ undoing.
They began the month with a 120108 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies at Madison Square Garden, then a crushing 122-115 overtime defeat to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on national television after blowing a 21point lead. The Knicks would ultimately drop 10 of the 11 games they played in February, and the tailspin carried over into this month, as they fell to the Philadelphia 76ers on March 2 followed by an abjectly deflating 30-foot, 3-point buzzer beater by the Phoenix Suns’ Cam Johnson last Friday to end the night stunned and on the wrong side of a 115-114 score.
The finish marked the Knicks’ seventh straight loss. So it was uplifting for them to come back on Sunday and impressively dominate the Los Angeles Clippers by 116-93 and 24 hours later demonstrate admirable resilience in erasing a 20-point late second quarter deficit to run the Sacramento Kings out of Golden 1 Center, their home arena, in the game’s final 24 minutes to take a confidence boosting 131-115 victory.
Knicks forward Julius Randle was spectacular in scoring a career-high 46 points. RJ Barrett continued his ascension by adding 29 and Immanuel Quickley, who is in a two-week stretch of playing the best he has this season, registered 27. The win gave the Knicks their first two-game winning streak in nearly two months. They won three in
(left hamstring strain), Nerlens Noel (plantar fasciitis) and Quentin Grimes (right patella injury). “Julius got going and it was pretty terrific what he did,” said Thibodeau. “When he plays with that type of intensity, it lifts everyone. He was attacking the basket, he was shooting the 3, he was making hustle plays. It was a great all-around game from him in so many different ways.” “Sacramento plays [at] a really high pace,” Randle evaluated, “and we had to get our transition in order and get stops and get our rhythm. Once we got stops, offense came a lot easier.” The Knicks will play the sixth game of their current seven-game, 12-day road AMNEWS trip against the Grizzlies tomorrow 01/06/22 0 74470 22784 7 and end it versus the Nets in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon. They’ll be back at Madison Square Garden for the first time since Feb. 27 next Wednesday to host the Portland Trailblazers.
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