Ben Simmons fouled out on Monday night for the second time in his first three games with the Brooklyn Nets, and Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant says he strategically played a role in that.
Simmons committed his sixth foul while he was guarding Morant with just under four minutes remaining in the Nets’ 134-124 loss.
Ja Morant just hilariously baited Ben Simmons into fouling outhttps://t.co/pU9Em4dJRC pic.twitter.com/tH7fAzQmtp
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 25, 2022
After the game, Morant told reporters he deliberately baited Simmons into fouling him. He said he remembered a similar play from his rookie year when Simmons, who was with the Philadelphia 76ers at the time, fouled Morant when the Grizzlies star was looking toward his coach for a play. Morant says he pretended to be looking toward the Memphis bench on Monday night in hopes that Simmons would get aggressive. It worked.
Ja Morant just explained how he baited Ben Simmons into a sixth foul by remembering something that happened during his rookie year. pic.twitter.com/lKgerareWm
— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) October 25, 2022
“My rookie year he was in Philly, the same situation happened like that with Ben,” Morant explained. “In the first half I went to look at coach to get the ball and he ran through the ball, got the steal and went and dunked. I knew it at that moment. I was rolling the ball and I looked at coach and I see (Simmons) try to look like, ‘Oh yeah.’ So I knew I had him. He was gonna press up and I was gonna force the ref to make the call.”
Simmons finished the game with 7 points, 8 assists and 3 rebounds in 28 minutes. The point total was his highest in three regular-season games with Brooklyn.
Kyrie Irving had a message for Simmons after the former No. 1 overall pick fouled out in Brooklyn’s season opener. Many people are anticipating that Simmons’ time with the Nets will be a disaster. This is certainly not the start he was hoping for.
