Ben Simmons performance for Brooklyn Nets vs Philadelphia 76ers, stats, report, highlights

At the start of this season, outside shooting and rebounding were a concern for the Nets and looked like Achilles heels.

On Tuesday, it was everything else that brought them down.

The Nets were beaten 127-119 by Philadelphia in their penultimate preseason game in front of 14,966 at the Barclays Center.

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It was not their usual failures that caused them to fail, but this time, shocking negligence.

“I told some assistant coaches earlier today that I really want this team to be known for playing hard, and that starts now,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn had warned beforehand. “It doesn’t start against Cleveland in the first game of the year.

“So if we can get our guys to understand if you play a four-minute relay, an eight-minute relay, don’t rush – don’t think about the end of the relay but play extremely hard. So it starts now. … I should never have to be in one of our huddles, in our timeouts, and talking about effort and playing hard.

Vaughn will definitely have to talk about playing smarter and cleaner.

Yes, without Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, they hit from deep and found themselves going toe-to-toe on the boards with the Joel Embiid-less 76ers.

But the Nets committed 27 turnovers, coughing up the ball in multiple ways to give Philadelphia 35 points.

Cam Thomas had 18 points and the Nets shot 54.8 percent from deep.

But they had more giveaways than Oprah Winfrey in her prime, and former 76ers All-Star Ben Simmons was as guilty as anyone with nine assists but also eight turnovers.

“[Simmons] looks very good. He looks in good shape. He looks confident, very aggressive. And it looks like they have a lot of stuff for him. So it looks like he’s ready to go,” said 76ers coach Nick Nurse, who had his team ready.

“They’re really good at the drive-and-kick and the spread game. They have a lot of wings and a lot of shooters. They have a lot of guys who can go off the bounce, and it’s definitely a system they play.

“And Ben is definitely a go-first guy, and he’s big and strong and has a good first step, et cetera, to get into the paint. Sometimes you have to decide how much help you are going to give him. Are you going to drop him one-on-one? Because he will devour you with his physique if you don’t send help. And if you send help, he’s very good at sending them back. It’s an interesting team.

Simmons looked good physically.

And make no mistake, in preseason where scores don’t matter, his health is priority #1, 2 and 3.

But he made three quick turnovers to put his Nets in an 18-5 hole against his former team.

With the Nets trailing by 16 early in the fourth quarter, Simmons had just four points and as many turnovers as he did assists (six).

The Nets were in a 99-83 hole after a Filip Petrusev 3-pointer 16 seconds into the fourth.

Simmons shook off his early funk and sparked a 16-7 run.

Spencer Dinwiddie made a 3-pointer, and after Simmons recovered the ball from Paul Reed, he threw down a dunk to cut the lead to 106-99 with 7:35 left.

Armoni Brooks made a 3-pointer to bring the Nets within 110-104 with 4:31 left, but that’s as close as it gets.

He later hit another 3 to make the score 120-114 with 1:49 left, but once again they couldn’t get over the hump.

NBA Scores

Ra’Anana 89, Riders 120

Falcons 112, Pacers 116

76ers 127, Nets 119

Rockets 99, Spurs 89

New Zealand Breakers 94, Jazz 114

Trail Blazers 106, Suns 117

This article was originally published in the New York Post and republished with permission.