Steph Curry had his first close-up look at Ben Simmons and he admits to being initially bamboozled by the young Australian.
Curry's Golden State Warriors soundly defeated Simmons' Philadelphia 76ers 135-114 in Oakland on Saturday, despite a close, enthralling battle in the first half.
The 208cm tall Simmons initially proved to be a handful for the 191cm Curry, but it was not just the Australian's height advantage and athleticism that took the two-time NBA MVP and four-time All-Star by surprise.
"He is very unorthodox with how he gets his shots up," Curry told reporters.
"We saw it on film, but it takes you a little bit off guard at first because he's a lefty that likes to shoot that little right-handed hook and floater so for defenders guarding him you have to adjust to that."
The 76ers trailed by just one point at halftime.
The Warriors, winners of two of the last three NBA titles, ramped up their defence and dropped a barrage of three-pointers to outscore the 76ers 36-21 in the third quarter.
"That was a great lesson for us," Simmons said.
Simmons fell two assists short of his eighth double-double in just 12 NBA regular season games with 13 points, eight assists and five rebounds.
The game had highs and lows for Simmons who missed his first five shots and went scoreless in the first quarter before finding his range in the second quarter.
"The first quarter I was just trying to figure out and see how they were playing me," Simmons, 21, said.
"They were playing back."
The Warriors' game plan was to expose Simmons' deficiencies as a shooter by hanging back and letting him have open looks.
The plan succeeded with the Australian missing 11 of his 17 field goal attempts.
76ers coach Brett Brown pulled Simmons from the game midway through the final quarter with the Warriors leading by 23 points.
Simmons had four turnovers.
The Warriors were led by Kevin Durant's 29 points and Curry's 22.
The Warriors also stunted 76ers' centre Joel Embiid, who had just 12 points and seven rebounds and suffered with seven turnovers.
The 76ers entered the game winning six of their last eight games.
They are in the middle of a US west coast trip, with the next stop in Los Angeles for games against the Clippers and Andrew Bogut's Lakers.
