Ben Simmons is "doing whatever he wants to" on a basketball court according to teammate Joel Embiid - and Philadelphia are reaping the rewards from it.
The Australian scored a career high 23 points as the 76ers survived a late Dallas charge to prevail 112-110, for their second win of the NBA season.
The 21-year-old added seven rebounds and eight assists in a performance highlighted by a right-handed put-back jam in the fourth quarter as the Sixers won on the road to improve their season record to 2-4.
Embiid, who had 23 points and nine rebounds himself, was lavish in praise of his teammate.
"There's still a lot of stuff we need to work on, but he doesn't look like a rookie out there - he's just playing basketball," Embiid said of Simmons.
"He looks like a vet out there. He's just doing whatever he wants to."
Coach Brett Brown said Simmons was his side's everywhere man.
"Look at Ben Simmons' numbers...how he impacts a game, all over the place," said Brown. "Tonight, he was a four-man, a three-man, a point guard. He switched out on effectively everybody, and just beats up on a stat sheet like we see, that's a hell of a game."
Dallas had a chance to tie the game with 0.2 seconds remaining with Yogi Ferrell at the free throw line, but the guard missed the first attempt and Dallas couldn't score on a rebound after he intentionally missed the second.
Harrison Barnes had a game high 25 points for the Mavs.
Simmons' fellow Australian Joe Ingles had 13 points, five rebounds and four assists as Utah beat the Los Angeles Lakers 96-81.
Donovan Mitchell (22 points) and Ricky Rubio (21 points) led the Jazz while Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball struggled with just nine points on three of 10 shooting.
Boomers big man Aron Baynes had six points and five rebounds in Boston's 96-90 win over Miami, with Kyrie Irving scoring nine of his 24 points in the final 2:03min.
"Just big possessions down the stretch (and) understanding you have to stay poised," Irving said.
Jayson Tatum scored 20 and Marcus Smart added 16 for the Celtics, who made it four wins on the trot after two losses to start their season.
A DeMarcus Cousins triple-double, of 29 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, and 30 points from Anthony Davis helped New Orleans beat Cleveland 123-101.
"We're locked in as a unit. We feel like we can battle with the best of them. We're starting to understand what it takes to win games," Cousins said.
Saturday's other winners were Oklahoma City Thunder, Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trail Blazers and Detroit Pistons.
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