Seltzer’s Notebook: Exiting SLC with Win, Simmons’ Comfort

Sixers Cap Utah Slate with WinThe Sixers and Utah each entered Thursday evening’s Utah Jazz Summer League finale at the Jon M. Huntsman Center searching for a victory. Both squads had dropped decisions to Boston, which went 3-0 in Salt Lake City, and San Antonio earlier in the week. Behind a stellar second half defensive effort, the Sixers ensured they would leave the Beehive State on a positive note, posting a convincing 82-68 win.”Our defense was great,” said Billy Lange, the Sixers’ fourth-year assistant who guided the organization’s club through the Utah circuit. “I thought it started in the fourth quarter of the San Antonio game.”Lange was referring to the final period of the Sixers’ 95-91 loss Tuesday, in which the team gave up just 12 points over the final 10 minutes of regulation. Thursday, after heading into intermission with the score tied at 43-43, the Sixers proceeded to clamp down. They spotted the Jazz 16 points in the third quarter, then yielded a paltry nine points in the fourth.  Between the the last two periods of the game, Utah generated only eight field goals.  “Definitely, that was the mentality coming into this game, just win,” said Ben Simmons, who made his second summer league appearance Thursday. He sustained calf cramps in Monday’s 102-94 defeat to Boston.Earlier Thursday, following the Sixers’ morning shootaround, a defense-first approach seemed to be front-of-mind for Simmons, the number one pick in last month’s draft, and fellow first-round selection Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, who went 24th overall. “Just go on the defensive side, and play hard,” Simmons said of the focus he brings into games. “That’s the thing I really look at.””I think the most important is to play defense, and play as a team,” said Luwawu-Cabarrot, who tallied nine points (3-9 fg) and six rebounds versus the Jazz. “If you play defense, everybody is going to cheer for each other, cheer the game.  Even if we just fight until the end and we lose, if there is fight, it’s a good game for us.”  Thursday, the Sixers didn’t just show defensive fight throughout the night, they also emerged with a coveted result. Simmons’ Second StepHaving gotten an initial taste of professional basketball Monday, and with his dual calf cramps in the rearview, Ben Simmons was prepared to move forward Thursday in the Sixers’ third and final Utah Jazz Summer League contest. “There’s some things I saw in the last game I played that I definitely want to work on,” Simmons said Thursday, following the Sixers’ morning shootaround. “I’ve adjusted slightly, so I’m more comfortable going into [Thursday’s] game.”Facing the host Jazz at Jon M. Huntsman Center, Simmons manufactured four points (1-6 fg, 2-5 ft), seven rebounds, and six assists in 30 minutes of action.”I felt like he looked way more comfortable out there on both ends,” said Billy Lange. Simmons agreed. “I let the game come to me,” the power forward said. “Obviously, I threw a lot of assists, so that was what they were giving me, and I took it.”Between his two summer league outings in Salt Lake City, Simmons racked up 11 assists. His 5.5 assist per game average was highest among all players in the Utah Jazz Summer League. The rookie didn’t seem rattled in the least that only one of his six shots found the bottom of the basket. “I’m a player, I take what they give me,” said Simmons. “I think he wants to make all of them,” Lange said of Simmons and his field goal attempts. “When you know you can impact the game in different areas, your attitude is at a different level. He knows, ‘I can go get that rebound if I miss that shot, I can go make the next play for a guy and deliver a great pass and get him an easy bucket.’ He finds joy and enthusiasm in that.”From Simmons’ very first practice with the Sixers Sunday, his willingness to facilitate left an impression on Lange.”It’s not about Ben,” said Lange. “He doesn’t play like it’s about him. It’s about the team.  I look at it as an encouraging thing, he still has room to grow.  He’s already this good. Now he has a chance to get better at something else.”As for any personal objectives he has for Las Vegas, the next stop of the Sixers’ summer tour, Simmons said, “I think just keep focus on the court.””We’re going as a team. Overall, I think we’re getting better.”The Sixers’ first tilt at Thomas & Mack Center is scheduled for Saturday, against the Los Angeles Lakers, which took Duke swingman Brandon Ingram second in the draft behind Simmons. Sixers Examine Multiple Fronts When Making Summer League EvaluationsThe farther along the Sixers go on their summer league schedule, the more looks they can obtain of the prospects they invited out west. Still, making judgments about these players can be tricky, especially given the circumstances surrounding both the Utah Jazz and Samsung NBA Summer League.When forming opinions, the coaching staff and front office find themselves weighing a combination of factors, chief among them being consistency and potential.”If you see the consistency of attention level, or their work ethic, their diligence, then you can say, regardless of where he’s at right now, that consistency will allow him to develop,” Lange told  told The BroadCast podcast Thursday.”Then,” he added, “you start picking up things like what’s the definable NBA skill.”Lange does not consider the steadiness and raw talent of a player to be mutually exclusive elements. “If a guy has consistency, at least in his effort, in his diligence, even if the results aren’t consistent yet, it’s a good predictor that at some point, he will reach consistent results because he appreciates and approaches his craft every day with a high level of effort and enthusiasm and concentration.”Several second-stringers on the Sixers’ summer league roster turned in effective showings Thursday. Columbia shooting guard Maodo Lo registered eight points (3-6 fg) and snagged five rebounds, while Louisiana-Lafayette big man Shawn Long produced nine points (4-7 fg), three rebounds, and two steals.  Both proved critical in the second half, as the Sixers put the score out of Utah’s reach.