Sixers Soften Harden, More Good News on the Way (?)

Ben Simmons is progressing, but will he be back in time?

[photo: Tim Warner/Getty Images]

Andrew Unterberger is a famous writer who invented the nickname 'Sauce Castillo' and is now writing for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the 'If Not, Pick Will Convey As Two Second-Rounders' section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard. 

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Welcome back, Josh Richardson. After three games of perimeter scorers treating his defense like temperamental directors getting notes from the studio, J-Rich seemed to finally take the snub a little personally Tuesday night against the Houston Rockets’ all-world points generator James Harden. Helps, of course, that Harden remains in one of the longest extended shooting slumps of his career -- 29% from three since the beginning of March -- but Richardson was also brilliant staying in front of the Beard without fouling, getting burned a couple times but mostly allowing the rest of the Sixers defense to stay at home. Harden scored 30 on 11-30 shooting, including a paltry six points in the fourth quarter, as the Sixers pulled away late, 120-109. 

Richardson also had one of his better offensive games since his return from injury, scoring 20 on 8-15 shooting -- though the star on that side of the ball was undoubtedly his backcourt mate Shake Milton. After a run of relatively vanilla March performances, Shake closed the month with one of his strongest outings to date, scoring at all three levels to get to 28 for the night, with seven assists as well. (The Rockets even had to switch our old friend Robert Covington onto Shake late to thin his production a little.) Embiid had a strong two-way performance, Furkan only stepped out of bounds once, and aside from that embarrassing stretch where Tobias tried in vain to post up P.J. Tucker on back-to-back possessions -- which resulted in Tucker essentially holding Tobi off with his forearm while the latter ran in place -- he had a solid 18-10 night at the office as well. 

The most heartening Sixers performance, though, came pre-game from one Ben Simmons, who engaged in shootaround (and even some light post work) for the first time since his injury. That was followed yesterday by reports that the Sixers and their medical staff were “pleased with Simmons’ progress,” and that he would return to scrimmaging with the team at practices. The official team statement ended with the news that Simmons’ status for game availability would be -- sing it with me now, you know the words -- re-evaluated in two weeks. 

“Feeling good, you know, just trying to get my body where it needs to be,” Simmons said of his current status when asked during yesterday’s media availability. “Getting myself back in game shape, staying talking with the staff, and Jo and the rest of the guys, and just getting ready for this playoff run.” That was followed by a question about whether he was still feeling any pain or discomfort in his lower back. “No,” he answered, albeit after a brief pause and in a higher-pitched voice than we might’ve liked. “Not really. You know, it’s going to take a minute before everything feels totally normal again, but compared to what I was dealing with in February, it’s nothing really.” Uhhh… we’ll take it, I guess?

Anyway, not like you haven’t done the schedule math already, but another two weeks basically takes us to the very end of the season -- April 15 is the last game. So what most semi-educated prognosticators seem to agree on at this point is that we’re at a coin-flip situation for whether Ben is going to be ready for the start of the playoffs. Not as much of a guarantee as many would’ve hoped for (and never smart to bet the under with any Sixers injury timeline), but “maybe” is certainly better news than “definitely not,” which is what a lot of us were fearing when Ben left that Bucks game, nearly two months ago at this point. (No official update yet on Matisse Thybulle, who left the Blazers game on Sunday with what appeared to be an ankle sprain.)

“I would describe our team’s current mindset as ‘cautiously optimistic,’” Brett Brown told reporters about Ben during his media availability yesterday -- now, for some reason, wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses that made him look like an extra in a ‘50s office comedy. “We’re still planning the rest of the regular season without him, obviously, and then the playoffs, we’ll have to see. But we’re really pleased with the progress Ben is making, both physically and mentally. We’re gonna have to stay ready to play winning basketball either way -- but if you give me the choice of playing winning basketball with or without Ben Simmons, hey, I’m taking Ben Simmons!” The scrum chuckled politely, as Brett smiled for the first time in what feels like months and took another long swig form his water bottle. 

A report out of New York says that Leon Rose is interested in hiring Elton Brand as the Knicks general manager, we discuss that, why the Sixers owners are not good sports owners, who we'd opt to trade between Milton and Thybulle if we had to trade one with Horford, we get to the Elite Eight in the Field Of 64 Jigsaws, and the 50% basketball mailbag brings Dario home, figures out who to amnesty, wonders if mead is vegan, and wonders if Spike or Mike would win a one-mile race.

Just eight games left on the schedule for the Sixers now, and with the Celtics and Pacers pulling away in both directions for the third seed and sixth seed, all that’s likely left to determine now is who gets home-court advantage in Philly’s first-round matchup against the Miami Heat. The Sixers pulled even with the Heat after the latter’s loss in Boston on Wednesday, during which our old pal Jimmy Butler could be seen loudly squabbling with coach Eric Spoelstra on the sideline after he was removed early in the third quarter with his fourth foul. 

“Me and Coach Spo, we had a difference in opinion, is all,” Butler explained after the game. “You know, I’m just such a competitor, I’d be out there all 48 mnutes if I could. I was just letting Coach Spo know that I was good with the four fouls, he could trust me, but he went another way with it. That’s cool -- me and Coach is good -- I just wanted to let him know how I felt.” The cackling could, of course, be heard far and wide across Sixers Twitter -- even JoJo couldn’t resist retweeting the interview clip with the cry-laugh emoji. Suffice to say, if the prospect of Jimmy Butler letting yet another team really know How He Feels after a disappointing playoff exit isn’t proper first-round motivation for this team, nothing will be.