Ben Simmons’s highly anticipated return to Philadelphia turned into a show by the rest of his new Nets teammates.
As Simmons watched on, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Seth Curry led Brooklyn to a dominant 129–100 win in the highly anticipated matchup.
After the game, Durant had some parting words for 76ers fans, some of whom left the blowout early after heckling Simmons, who has yet to make his season debut.
“He already knew that we had his back, but it just felt good to quiet all of them down midway through the game,” Durant said. “It was very quiet towards the end, we didn’t hear no more Ben Simmons chants from the Sixers fans. It was more Nets fans in here than anything.”
As Durant gave his brief interview on TNT, Nets fans sticking around the Wells Fargo Center showered him with “MVP” chants usually reserved for Joel Embiid in that building.
After the game, Irving also commented on the treatment Simmons received, and how it pushed the team forward.
“… We all felt it, we’re all there, we all deal,” Irving said. “If you come at Ben, you come at us. If you come at anyone else on our team, you come at all of us, and that’s the mentality.”
With the win, the Nets move to 34–33 in the Eastern Conference. The eighth place team is five games behind the Cavaliers for the ever-important sixth spot, which would see them avoid the play-in round of the playoffs.
