The Brooklyn Nets' issues go well beyond who's not on the court, and Ben Simmons' return to Philadelphia demonstrated that to an embarrassing extent.
To put things in perspective, here was the Sixers' starting lineup: De'Anthony Melton, Shake Milton, Tobias Harris, P.J. Tucker, Montrezl Harrell. Two of those players, Milton and Harrell, were making their second starts of the season.
Meanwhile, Paul Reed and Georges Niang came off the bench to combine for 35 points, more than the entire Nets bench. It's hard to sugarcoat that for the Nets, who fell to 8-10 on the season. Sure, it can take a while for a team to get going when its biggest stars haven't been able to play many minutes together , but that's not as big of a challenge as none of those stars playing, which the Sixers clearly handled well enough.
The Nets are not going to be taken seriously as the contender they're supposed to be until they're reliably beating teams like an Embiid-and-Harden-less Sixers. That's not an unreasonable expectation.Making the night even more embarrassing was the spotlight of Simmons' making his second start in Philadelphia since his infamous ejection from the team., there were always going to be boos. But Simmons posted nine points , five assists and three rebounds in the first half.
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