THE meteoric rise of Aussie NBA rookie Ben Simmons continued today with another marquee performance against the Atlanta Hawks.
The towering Philadelphia playmaker recorded a fifth double double in his opening eight games, falling agonisingly short of a second career triple double as the 76ers claimed their first home win of the season, 119-109.
Simmons had just four points at the long break, but turned it on in the second half with 10 in the third, finishing with 19 points, a career-high 13 rebounds, nine assists and a pair of steals.
None of his buckets was better than this running floater that fell like a teardrop from heaven, but a massive slam in the lane with a tick over one minute to go sealed the game and brought the Wells Fargo Center crowd to its feet.
The Sixers opened the game on a 25-8 run, but the pesky Hawks made a fist of it, tying things up at 93 at the final break.
But they missed their first 11 shots of the last quarter, effectively killing off their chances.
Simmons had a ton of help with the Sixers sharing the load thanks to six players in double digits, led by Robert Covington (22 points) and Joel Embiid (21 points, 12 rebounds, a career-high six dimes to goa long with three steals and three blocks). Dennis Schroder had 25 for the Hawks.
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