Shockingly, the return of Jared Dudley did not tip the scales of the Nets-Sixers series. In Thursday’s Game 3, the Nets were lit up at home, 131-115, even with Joel Embiid in street clothes. Ben Simmons led Philly with 31 points on 11-of-13 shooting, and well-rounded box score aside, he also kept his satisfyingly stupid beef with Jared Dudley on the grill. While Simmons claimed after the game that he didn’t “really have energy for it,” the tape would suggest otherwise.
Here’s a fairly common Dudley celebration pose:
And here was Simmons, after a Dudley airball, in Game 3:
Dudley, a career 39 percent shooter from three, has yet to connect in this series. He bricked both his attempts and finished with one rebound, two turnovers, and one foul in 16 minutes. After that foul call Dudley complained to the ref, and Simmons let him know he was amused.
It was nice while it lasted, but given the Nets’ struggles with these no-Embiid lineups, this beef might now be cooked all the way through, and hurtling towards hockey-puck consistency.