Things could be going better in the world of Ben Simmons right now. While the Philadelphia 76ers are one game away from the Eastern Conference Finals — they’ll take on the Atlanta Hawks in a Game 7 in the City of Brotherly Love on Sunday evening — Simmons has struggled mightily, to the point that he’s been taken off the floor at times by Doc Rivers.
His scoring has completely cratered in the last two games, scoring 14 total points while shooting 4-for-10 from the field across both contests. He’s not shooting in the second half of games at all, and in this series, Simmons is 14-for-44 from the free throw line, which comes out to a 32.6 percent clip. Perhaps Philly can outlast the Hawks, but any hopes of winning a ring will depend on Simmons finding his form on the offensive end of the floor.
In an attempt to get Simmons back on track, Shaquille O’Neal used Inside the NBA and the fact that they both went to LSU to get a message across.
"You went to LSU. Man up."@SHAQ has a message for Ben Simmons. pic.twitter.com/kQaTazoI7t
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) June 20, 2021
“Camera!” Shaq said, alerting the camera to focus on him as he took off his glasses. “Ben, you went to LSU. Man up, man. Man up. Stop messing around. Come on, now. You know better than that.”
Some trash talk came via Charles Barkley about LSU, then he and Shaq had a back-and-forth about the university. But hey, if Simmons does bounce back in a big way in Game 7, I guess you can say it’s because he has the eye of the Tiger(s).
