76ers' Joel Embiid Denies Having Added Motivation Against Simmons

The crowd got up for Joel Embiid vs. Ben Simmons. The big man himself claims it was just another matchup.

The highly anticipated battle between Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons is finally in the bag. Although the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers have faced each other twice since the blockbuster trade that swapped All-Stars James Harden and Simmons, Embiid and Simmons haven’t faced off in either of those matchups as injuries affected their statuses for those games.

Although Embiid nearly missed Wednesday’s game due to foot soreness, the big man got the nod to play. And within the first few minutes of the matchup, Simmons was switched onto Embiid, which got a massive reaction from the South Philly crowd.

The environment was hostile, as expected, but Embiid stated there wasn’t any added motivation on a personal level drawing a one-on-one situation against Simmons.

“I was not [trying to go at him],” Embiid said after the game. “If you look at the way I play, It doesn’t matter, whatever matchup every single night, whoever is in front me, it’s always the same aggression.”

Embiid explained that his mentality whenever he gets the ball on offense is simple: Dominate the player in front of him by scoring or making the proper read and passing out of a double-team if a clean shot isn’t there. While Embiid would’ve liked to get a score on Simmons on Wednesday, the big man admitted he wasn’t on his A-game from the field.  

“As far as trying to score the ball, tonight, that was the same thing,” Embiid continued. “I Missed a lot of shots today, which hasn’t happened in a while. I had a bad night, but I’m happy I got the win.”

Even on an off night on offense, Embiid finished the game with 26 points. In 34 minutes, the big man drained six of his 18 shots from the field, with 13 of his points coming from the free throw line. While it was a below-average scoring night by the big man’s standards this year, Embiid’s contributions still helped the Sixers pick up another win over the Nets as they defeated Brooklyn 137-133. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.