The name of Anfernee Simons wasn’t exactly spoken of very much in columns such as these until recently. But his surge of late has taken him into a 15 minutes of fame sort of situation (or perhaps the start of stardom) and that kept up on Monday night as he took his Portland Trail Blazers past the Brooklyn Nets 114-108 by scoring 23 points and dishing out 11 assists. Despite being short-handed (neither Damian Lillard nor CJ McCollum was available), Simons has been downright impressive, following up a 31-point night against Sacramento last time out with this performance. And he might just be showing the Portland brass and the faithful, too, that they might just have a plan in place if Lillard does indeed leave for pastures new.
Kevin Durant also had a double-double in this outing, scoring 28 while grabbing ten rebounds in the road defeat. Elsewhere, LaMelo Ball came up clutch for the Charlotte Hornets late as they knocked off the Milwaukee Bucks 103-99 at home. With the score at 99 apiece, Ball hit a running floater with 15 seconds to go, putting the Hornets ahead for good. He had 23 total on the evening while ‘Scary’ Terry Rozier led the way with 27. The Bucks got 27 from Khris Middleton and 26 from Giannis in the loss.
