Trae Young once again was a nightmare for his rivals on Sunday afternoon. The Atlanta Hawks young star torched the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of the Eastern Semifinals, dropping 35 on Danny Green.
The Hawks suffered more than necessary and almost blew a 20+ lead. Trae and co. did the job, stealing the first game of the series against the top-seeded team.
Ben Simmons received a lot of criticism during and after the game for not guarding Young, leaving that job to Danny Green. He made a case for himself as the 2021 DPOY award winner, which is why people didn’t understand why he wasn’t guarding Trae.
Well, the Australian player has announced that he wants to go against the guard, as long as referees don’t call ‘too many fouls.’
“I probably would do that. I mean, I want to. If the refs aren’t gonna call so many fouls and I can be physical and be 6’10”, then I’ll be 6’10”. But we’ll see,” Simmons told reporters after the game.
Ben Simmons, whether he expects the defensive assignments to change for Game 2, where he would defend Trae Young more: "I probably would do that. I mean, I want to. If the refs aren't gonna call so many fouls and I can be physical and be 6'10", then I'll be 6'10". But we'll see."
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) June 6, 2021
This is an exciting matchup that we didn’t get to see in Game 1 of the series. Young comes from torching the New York Knicks, and he picked things right where he left them against the Sixers.
Doc Rivers needs to make some adjustments before Game 2, and putting Ben on Trae might be one of them.
