Ben Simmons will be on the bench, boos raining down from all corners of his old home.

James Harden and Kyrie Irving will go head-to-head on the court, their explosive partnership having flamed out in just 13 months.

A month after Harden and Simmons were swapped in a blockbuster NBA trade, Brooklyn visits Philadelphia on Thursday in what’s more than just perhaps the most-hyped game of the stretch run.

This one is personal.

“It’s going to be loud,” Nets All-Star Kevin Durant said. “I’m sure Philly fans and people watching the game and media think this is somewhat of a budding rivalry. So I imagine it’s going to feel that way.”

When these teams were last on the court together, Durant and Joel Embiid received taunting technical fouls in the final moments before Embiid waved the Nets off their home floor after the 76ers’ Dec. 30 victory.

Things could be even testier now.

Trade deadline day was breakup day in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, with Simmons and Harden getting their wishes to part ways with their teams when they were exchanged in a Feb. 10 deal. Simmons said the 76ers were aware of his desire to leave well before the end of last season. It’s unclear exactly when Harden soured on the Nets after only joining them in January 2021.

Nevertheless, Durant and Irving say they don’t hold it against him – though it was only hours later that Durant refused to pick Harden during the All-Star draft, leaving him to LeBron James with the last pick.

Durant said he understands if Harden, seeing Durant sidelined because of a knee injury and Irving ineligible to play in home games because he isn’t vaccinated against the coronavirus, decided he needed to go elsewhere to chase his first championship. Irving said he respects Harden’s decision.

“Like, we have a great friendship, but it didn’t work out,” Irving said. “I wish things could have been communicated better for all of us as men. But hey, like, no hard feelings for me or anyone else.”

Everyone has to take Irving at his word, though it’s hard to imagine there isn’t just a tinge of resentment.

Harden has been terrific so far with the 76ers. Simmons still isn’t playing, bothered by a sore back when he tried to build up his conditioning. But he plans to be with his teammates on the bench in Philadelphia, where some of the toughest fans in sports can let loose on the player the Sixers took with the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft.

Along with Embiid, he led the Sixers out of their losing era to the best record in the Eastern Conference last season. It was a good run, one Coach Doc Rivers said would justify a tribute video if the Sixers opt to give Simmons one.

“Ben did a lot of good things here,” Rivers said. “It didn’t end well, right, just like marriages and all kinds of other things don’t end well, right? But Ben did a lot of good things here.”

Those good times are unlikely to be remembered Thursday.

The memory for Philly fans is likely to be Simmons’ poor and impassive play in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series against Atlanta, when he passed up a late layup that helped swing the game the Hawks’ way, followed by his refusal to suit up for them ever again while citing mental health challenges.

It might be easier to jeer Simmons if he were playing, as he said he hoped to do after first arriving in Brooklyn. But Philadelphia fans – who once booed and threw snowballs at Santa Claus at a football game – can probably make Thursday’s situation work.

“Our fans are so silent, so I can’t imagine anything happening,” Rivers deadpanned.

With Embiid playing at an MVP level and Harden providing an immediate boost, the Sixers are second in the East. The Nets are eighth and appear headed for the play-in rounds, though they showed how dangerous they can be when Irving scored 50 points on just 19 shots in a victory at Charlotte on Tuesday.

The atmosphere could be reminiscent of the angry crowds that welcomed James back to Cleveland after his first departure for Miami, or Durant back to Oklahoma City after he left for Golden State in 2016.

“It was a different situation because I got to play and shut the people up every time I hit a jump shot,” Durant said. “But Ben doesn’t have their opportunity right now. He’s got to just sit there and just take a bunch of people just being childish and throwing insults his way because he didn’t want to play basketball for them no more.”

But Durant said he wouldn’t offer any advice to Simmons, saying he’d have to experience it for himself and might even find some of it amusing.

“I mean, the guy’s making $40 million a year,” Durant said. “You could take that for 48, for a couple hours, and I’m sure Ben has that approach.”

KINGS: The NBA suspended center Domantas Sabonis one game without pay for aggressively confronting and making contact with an official who called him for a technical foul.

Sabonis was ejected in the fourth quarter of Monday night’s game against the New York Knicks after receiving double technicals.

The first was for unsportsmanlike reaction to a called foul. He then “approached and bumped the official in a hostile manner,” the league said, which led to the second technical and his ejection.

The Kings said in a statement that they disagreed with the suspension.

Sabonis served his suspension Wednesday night when the Kings played host to the Denver Nuggets.

PELICANS: New Orleans scoring leader Brandon Ingram, who sat out games on Tuesday and Wednesday because of a sore right hamstring, will be sidelined at least another week, the club announced.

Ingram has averaged 22.8 points this season.

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES

BULLS 114, PISTONS 108: DeMar DeRozan scored 16 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter and Chicago won at Detroit to snap a five-game losing streak.

Zach LeVine added 25 points for the Bulls, and Nikola Vucevic had 21. Chicago won despite only hitting three 3-pointers.

Cade Cunningham had 22 points for the Pistons, but no one else scored more than 12. Detroit had won three straight.

The Pistons led 99-92 with 8:59 left before DeRozan and LeVine took over.

SUNS 111, HEAT 90: Devin Booker scored 23 points, Mikal Bridges added 21 and Phoenix shook off a slow start to win at Miami in a matchup of the NBA’s conference leaders.

Booker, returning from a four-game absence for virus-related issues, flirted with a triple-double, finishing with nine assists and eight rebounds. Phoenix improved the NBA’s best record to 53-13, and the reigning Western Conference champion Suns have now beaten all other 29 teams this season – the first time they’ve done that since 2006-07.

Deandre Ayton had 19 points on 9-for-10 shooting and 10 rebounds for the Suns, who got 11 points and 15 rebounds from JaVale McGee, and 11 points apiece from Jae Crowder and Cameron Payne.

BUCKS 124, HAWKS 115: Giannis Antetokounmpo had 43 points and 12 rebounds and Milwaukee won at home for its sixth straight victory.

Defending champion Milwaukee edged a half-game ahead of Philadelphia for second place in the Eastern Conference and moved within two games of first-place Miami.

Bobby Portis added 23 points and 15 rebounds, and Khris Middleton had 23 points and eight assists to help Milwaukee beat Atlanta for the first time in three tries this season.

Trae Young led Atlanta with 27 points and 11 assists.

TIMBERWOLVES 132, THUNDER 102: Malik Beasley made 11 3-pointers to set a franchise record and finished with 33 points to help lift host Minnesota to its sixth win in a row.

Taurean Prince scored 17 points off the bench for Minnesota, while Karl-Anthony Towns recorded another double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds in 29 minutes.

Aaron Wiggins led Oklahoma City with 25 points and nine rebounds.

MAGIC 108, PELICANS 102: Cole Anthony scored 19 points, Gary Harris added 16 in a reserve role, and Orlando won at New Orleans.

Terrence Ross scored 12 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, highlighted by a pair of 3s and a 360-degree, right-handed dunk that helped Orlando stunt a New Orleans comeback bid that had briefly cut the Pelicans’ deficit to six. He capped his night with a pair of clutch free throws with 10 seconds left.

ROCKETS 139, LAKERS 130: Rookie Jalen Green scored a career-high 32 points, including 10 in overtime, and Houston outlasted visiting Los Angeles.

The Rockets, who have the worst record in the Western Conference, withstood a triple-double from LeBron James and 30 points from Russell Westbrook to get just their second win in 15 games.

The loss is the ninth straight on the road for the Lakers, who have dropped six of their last seven games and are running out of time to get things together before the playoffs begin.

James had 23 points, 14 rebounds and a season-high 12 assists for his fifth triple-double of the season. But his career-long streak of consecutive games with 25 points ended at 23 games on a night when he was 9 of 26 overall and made just 1 of 9 3-pointers.

RAPTORS 119, SPURS 104: Fred VanVleet had 26 points and Toronto won at San Antonio, delaying Gregg Popovich’s coronation as the winningest coach in NBA history.

Popovich is tied with his friend and mentor, Don Nelson, with 1,335 regular-season victories.

San Antonio’s next opportunity to get the record for its 73-year-old coach is Friday night at home against Utah.

KNICKS 107, MAVERICKS 77: Julius Randle scored 26 points against his hometown team and New York won for the fifth consecutive time in Dallas.

RJ Barrett added 18 points for the Knicks, who won their third straight following a seven-game losing streak and improved to 3-2 on a season-long seven-game road trip.

The Mavericks missed their first 19 3-point shots while falling behind by 28 in their lowest-scoring first half of the season. Dallas trailed 61-34 at the break as a five-game winning streak ended.

Luka Doncic scored 17 of his 31 points in the third quarter, when the Mavericks got within 14 before consecutive buckets from Randle steadied the Knicks.

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