Simmons's shoes will be very hard to fill, indeed.
The NLEX Road Warriors are 3-0 to start the PBA Governors’ Cup, and they can thank Jonathon Simmons for it.
Simmons again showed his NBA pedigree, scoring a game-high 45 points on top of 12 rebounds in leading NLEX to a come-from-behind victory over the erstwhile unbeaten TNT Tropang Giga.
“Give credit to this guy [Simmons]. He brought us back.” said NLEX coach Frankie Lim post-game when asked about how the Road Warriors eked out the 110-108 victory.
Indeed, he did.
The former San Antonio Spur was at his best in the third quarter, pouring in 18 of his 26 second-half points to keep NLEX within striking distance of TNT despite subpar performances from Kevin Alas and Don Trollano to that point. Simmons added 8 more in the fourth, including a tough and-1 at the midway mark of the payoff period to draw the Road Warriors to within a point of the Tropang Giga, 98-97.
But by then it was no longer just about Simmons’s scoring. The high-flying wingman also buckled down on defense, putting the clamps on his prolific counterpart from TNT, Jalen Hudson, who had scored 33 points in the first three quarters. But with the former NBA veteran in his grill for much of the fourth period, Hudson could only muster 6 more points and committed consecutive offensive fouls against Simmons—2 of his 4 turnovers in the final canto.
Unfortunately, Simmons’s encore appears to be good news and bad news for the Road Warriors, as the countdown for his goodbye to the PBA begins. He has played three of the four games he promised NLEX, with his final game slated on February 4 against Phoenix.
In fact, the Road Warriors have already found Simmons's replacement: fellow NBA veteran Wayne Selden Jr, who now has to meet the high bar set by the man they call The Juice.
“He [Lim] hopes he’s [Selden] better than me,” Simmons said of the impending import switch at NLEX.
After this masterpiece, Simmons proved yet again that he will be hard to replace. And Road Warriors fans will sure be hoping Selden is a worthy replacement.