Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons is one of the most talented players in the NBA, but the second-year guard has been unable to consistently play at a high level against the Boston Celtics.
Simmons scored 11 points with 14 rebounds and eight assists in his team's Christmas Day overtime loss to the C's at TD Garden. He also shot 4-for-9 from the field and just 3-for-7 from the foul line. Simmons didn't play horribly, but his ineffectiveness certainly was a factor in Philly's 121-114 defeat.
Plus/minus can sometimes be a misleading stat, but when there's enough evidence in one direction -- enough that it's a real trend -- it can be a good barometer of a player's performance in certain matchups. Simmons has played 11 games against the Celtics in his career (start of the 2017-18 campaign through Tuesday's matchup) and he is a combined minus-125 in those games, per Basketball Reference. This crazy stat includes the five-game Eastern Conference semifinals playoff series Boston won 4-1 last season.
Simmons was a minus-17 on Tuesday, the worst of any player on either team. He made just one of his four shot attempts in the fourth quarter and overtime. His final shot attempt was a driving, contested layup that bounced off the backboard and didn't even hit the rim. The C's got the ball up 118-114 with 40 seconds left and sealed the win.
The Celtics are 9-2 against the 76ers in Simmons' career. He's played a leading role in several of these defeats, too, and one that comes to mind right away is his 1-point performance in Game 2 of last season's playoff series, which Boston won after trailing by more than 20 in the first half.
The 76ers likely will need to play the Celtics in the playoffs over the next few years if they are going to reach the NBA Finals from the Eastern Conference. Right now, the C's are a bad matchup for the Sixers, and until they figure out how to increase Simmons' effectiveness against the likes of Marcus Smart and Marcus Morris, it's going to be super tough for Philly to beat Boston four times in a seven-game playoff matchup.
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