For the Brooklyn Nets, no one player can replace the production of Kevin Durant, who is reportedly out for the next month, maybe more, with a sprained MCL. They have to do it by committee. One of the obvious candidates to pick up at least some of Durant's scoring and overall usage is Ben Simmons, who hasn't been asked to initiate much offense or serve as even a secondary scorer during his time with Brooklyn, but has operated as an All-Star lead dog in the past.
From a scoring standpoint, things didn't go so well for Simmons in Brooklyn's first game since KD's injury. The Nets lost to Boston, 109-98, and Simmons put up a bagel on three shot attempts. Simmons played well. He pushed pace and made a number of sweet passes, resulting in 13 assists, becoming the first player to record 10 dimes for Brooklyn since the James Harden trade. He was the only Brooklyn player to post a positive point differential: plus-10 in 26 minutes. He added nine rebounds.
Which puts him in a rare, if somewhat dubious statistical club as one of just 18 players in NBA history to record at least 13 assists without scoring a point, per Basketball Reference. Interestingly enough, Simmons' coach, Jacque Vaughn, is also in the club, having put up the 13-0 line as a member of the then-New Jersey Nets in 2006.
Throw in Simmons' nine rebounds along with 13 assists and zero points, and the club shrinks to just three: Norm Van Lier in 1971, Tomas Satoransky and now Simmons. Even if you shave the assist marker to 10, still only six players have authored a 0-10-9 line: Van Lier and Satoransky, Jason Kidd, Scottie Pippen, Josh Giddey and now Simmons.
Again, I'm not sure this all that proud of a distinction. The exclusivity of the club is based almost entirely on getting shut out. A lot of guys put up 13 assists and nine boards in a game. Nikola Jokic does it about twice a week. But it's actually hard to play big minutes in an NBA game without scoring a single point, let alone as a guy who gets plenty of touches with All-Star-level skills.
Nonetheless, Simmons is in the club. Congratulations are in order, I guess.
