Ben Simmons downplayed the dust-up between himself and Philly native Kyle Lowry at the end of the Sixers’ 117-111 win over the Raptors on Monday afternoon.

It was late in the fourth quarter when Simmons and Lowry began jawing at each other during a pair of Sixer free throws, continuing through the inbound play and leading to double ejections:

Meet me in the locker room?

Yeah! I’ll be right there. 

(paraphrasing)

Simmons was asked post-game if there was any hallway altercation between himself and Lowry, which lead to this dialogue with the media:

Simmons: “Off the court? No.”

Jack McCaffery/Delco Times: “There were words between you two on the court. Do you care to share what was said?”

Simmons: “Nah. It’s nothing.

Keith Pompey/Inquirer: “You guys weren’t separated in the back?”

Simmons: “Separated? Nah, I just went to the locker room. Nobody was back there.”

Pompey: “I heard he was trying to come at you.”

Simmons: (shrugs) “I don’t know where he’s at.”

Pompey: “So what happened?”

Simmons: “Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe frustration that they’re down, that they’re about to lose. I don’t know what it is.”

Pompey: “It seems like you’re not going to back down from anybody.”

Simmons: “Maybe they’re just trying to test me, or see how I am on the court. But I don’t play around. I’m not going to take shit from anybody.”

There ya go, Ben. First time I’ve heard him drop an expletive since I’ve been on the beat. That’s the second time in two games he’s had bit of a brush-up with a Philly-born player, which he joked about after that exchange.

For what it’s worth, I asked Brett Brown what he saw between Lowry and Simmons, and he didn’t deflect at all:

“I think if you go back and look at the tape, you’re gonna see (Jakob) Poeltl just duck in and hit the hell out of Ben on an alleged sort of box out – I think when the game was effectively over. I think you’re going to see that sort of trigger the things that went on. As far as what happened after that with Ben and Kyle, I don’t know. But the Poeltl box out on Ben, have a look at that if you get a chance.”

Let’s have a look.

If you go back and watch the final 30 seconds, you see Lowry sort of hook Simmons’ arm on Joel Embiid’s last set of free throws:

Later, on the Dario Saric free throws, you see the Poeltl box out that Brett is talking about:

During that free throw, Simmons and Lowry were jawing the entire time. It looks like the Poeltl shove annoys Ben even further.

So there you go. That is the context I am able to provide.

Kyle: I’m am so Natalie Imbruglia here. On one hand, Ben Simmons’ balls just dropped before our very eyes and he dropped a four-letter world in his press conference. On the other hand, Kyle Lowry just donated $1 million to my alma mater and is one of my favorite athletes who walked off the plane upon landing in Philly singing FLY EAGLES FLY. Torn.