It may be time to finally stop trusting the process.
After finishing atop the Eastern Conference in the regular season, the Philadelphia 76ers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs after a stunning Game 7 loss to the fifth seed Atlanta Hawks.
Despite another monster game from Joel Embiid, the Sixers were unable to contain Trae Young late in the fourth quarter, and seemed blindsided by the unheralded Kevin Huerter, who had a huge game himself. Not helping matters was another horrendous performance from Ben Simmons, who once again seemed spooked when it came to shooting the ball.
Simmons, who’s always struggled with his shot, whether it be from the free throw line or from three-point range, had a particularly brutal series.
One especially egregious moment occurred in the fourth, when Simmons had a clear layup or dunk opportunity but passed the ball off to Matisse Thybulle instead. Just listen to the crowd groan.
After the 76ers were booed off the court by their home crowd, head coach Doc Rivers was asked about whether or not Simmons can be the point guard on a championship team. To say that Rivers was non-committal to his young star would be an understatement.
After the game, an understandably subdued Simmons had this to say:
And here’s a postgame quote from Embiid, in which he appeared to address Simmons’ poor shooting:
And as is usually the case on NBA Twitter, people couldn’t help but get some jokes off after another early exit by the Sixers. Unfortunately for Simmons, they didn’t let him off the hook either. Check out some of the more notable reactions to the Sixers game 7 loss below.
