Ben Simmons has a weakness, and the Wizards finally found it

The Washington Wizards were down by as many as 24 points with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid dominating most of the game. Then the fourth quarter happened.

With about six minutes left in the game and down by double digits, the Wizards kept intentionally putting Ben Simmons at the free throw line and cut the lead to as low as three.

The Wizards put Simmons on the free throw line 24 times in the fourth quarter with him knocking down 12 of them. The 76ers still won the game, but it didn’t come without struggle. Simmons has seemed so close to impervious throughout this season as a rookie, but the Wizards just exposed his biggest flaw.

Simmons has been a below-average free throw shooter throughout his career, but so far in the NBA he hasn’t been effective at the line as a 56 percent free throw shooter. The 6’10 point forward is a great ball handler and a facilitator. He’s also a beast in the paint. But if you foul him hard, he might miss a couple for you.

It isn’t the ideal way to play anyone — especially a player as sharp as Simmons. It’s not a defensive strategy you can lean on or one that should exist. But it worked tonight and we’ll probably see it again.

You could see the frustration in the 76ers’ faces while Simmons was bricking free throws. Brett Brown didn’t pull his point guard while their frustration was building and the Wizards drew closer and closer.

Beyond the Simmons free throws, there were other moments where the 76ers’ frustrations showed on the court. For example, this silly Simmons foul with the Wizards in the bonus.

Or this over-the-back foul and technical foul on Embiid.

And this bad foul on a Bradley Beal three-pointer from Embiid.

Those are young mistakes from a young team. Frustration at the free throw line and a 48-point fourth quarter from your opponent will do that to you.

We can go down the list. Andre Roberson is one of the most recent examples. DeAndre Jordan is another. Andre Drummond is another one. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But tonight, it brought the Wizards back in the game.

The strategy stinks because it’s not real basketball. These fouls aren’t organically part of the game and slow things down to a screeching halt. The game lasted nearly three full hours, and no one wants to sit through that.

The league tried to discourage this by increasing the penalty against the fouling team in the last two minutes of the game, but there are obviously still ways around that. The irony of it all? The Wizards did this in front of Adam Silver.

He certainly couldn’t have been pleased by this.

It’s not like Simmons is hopeless at the line. He made 66 percent of his free throws at LSU. But he just hasn’t been good at them in the NBA.

Simmons started to make more and more free throws as time went by, but now teams know hard fouls can stop him. And, if worst comes to worst, the hack-a strategy is always available. He’ll eventually start to knock these down. But in the meantime, the 76ers better hope they don’t see this again anytime soon.