Portland Trail Blazers’ Anfernee Simons making case for more playing time

Published 8:44 pm Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Anfernee Simons sank his ninth 3-pointer in nine tries at the 10:35 mark of the fourth quarter during the Portland Trail Blazers‘ 133-112 win Tuesday night at Indiana.

Only seconds later, Simons again had the ball in his hands while needing one more to tie the NBA record for 3s made without a miss in a single game. Simons brought the ball up the court in transition and after taking four steps past halfcourt, launched a deep shot.

“I just wanted to see how hot I was and see if I was going to miss tonight,” Simons said.

The shot clanked off the back of the rim, leaving Simons at 9 of 10 on 3-pointers. His nine consecutive 3s without a miss fell one short of the NBA record, but broke a franchise record previously held by Terry Porter, with seven.

Simons finished with a game-high 27 points and added four assists. He made one 3 in the first quarter, three in each of the next two quarters, and two in the fourth.

“That would have been nice had that last one gone in,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said. “He had a special night.”

Simons is enjoying the best season of his three-year career, averaging 8.2 points and shooting 44.4% from deep. But his playing time has been inconsistent, other than when C.J. McCollum missed 25 games with a broken foot.

Simons didn’t play a single minute on April 13 during a loss to Boston, and four times this month he has played fewer than 10 minutes. But he has consistently played well, shooting 50% from the field in April and 52.8% on 3s.

Even before Tuesday night, Simons was 19 of 43 (44.2%) from long range in April. That’s by far better than the team’s top three guards, Damian Lillard (35.9%), McCollum (35.7%) and Norman Powell (28.6%).

Lillard, a mentor to Simons, said the two often talk at night after practices or games.

“I just got a lot of confidence in him,” Lillard said. “I know how talented he is. I know how much ability he has. When he gets in those positions, I’m just always trying to encourage him to keep going. Don’t be shy. Don’t worry about what people might think.”

Simons’ immense talent, Lillard said, demands that he is allowed opportunities to flourish and to be encouraged to keep firing.

“We’ve got to allow him to grow into that,” Lillard said. “I think moments like tonight kind of play into that. When you just allow him to experience that. He got hot.”

Simons said he realized he was on fire after the first 3 he hit in the second half.

“After that, I felt like it didn’t matter who was contesting and how close they were, if I was able to get it off, I knew it was going to go in,” Simons said. “So, it was a good night for me.”

Shooting clearly isn’t what’s costing Simons minutes, and he said he has been working on influencing games in other ways because he knows the team has plenty of scorers. Areas where he remains raw are on defense and as a playmaker.

Defensively, Simons grades out poorly. However, those numbers are improved from where they were a month ago.

As for his passing skills, Simons made several quality passes Tuesday to open players from a variety of angles that didn’t result in assists but kept the offense moving.

It is a skill Simons said he has been working hard to develop.

“Last year I had trouble seeing the court fully,” Simons said. “But I think last summer and then going into training camp, and kind of working on that stuff, opened up my mind. I think it’s been helping me out a lot. Just keeping the defense honest and not getting caught up in trying to score, I think it’s going to open up my game a lot by seeing the passing plays as well.”