Philadelphia 76ers delivered an unwelcoming surprise to their fans on Friday night with a 123-121 loss to Atlanta Hawks. While some might say that the 76ers loss to Hawks, who are in a rebuilding stage and sit 12th in the Eastern Conference, got to do with some poor decision making, their young star guard/forward Ben Simmons has another opinion.
According to Simmons, he and his teammates were “too soft” against Atlanta.
“Definitely,” – said Simmons when reporters asked him whether physicality was the Philadelphia’s biggest problem. “I think we were too soft.”
“I just don’t think we’re physical enough. I think defensively, we’re not taking it personal enough when guys score on us. It should be a pride thing when somebody scores; you should be frustrated every time,” – he added.
Although 76ers played poorly as a team, Ben Simmons had a great game in which he posted a triple-double, managing to score 23 points while adding 10 rebounds and 15 assists.
His teammate Jimmy Butler, on the other hand, doesn’t agree with the term “soft,” and that Hawks were just better on Friday.
“I don’t like the word ‘soft,'” – said Butler. “I just don’t think that we did what we were supposed to do. I’m not gonna say that anybody’s soft. I just think that we got beat in every aspect of the game. They came out from the jump and did what they wanted to do, and they did that for 48 straight minutes.”
After this loss, Philadelphia 76ers find themselves on the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference with a 27-16 record.
