If you’ve watched any Sixers basketball in the last three seasons, you know that Brett Brown’s favorite play call, or at least most frequent play call, is the low-to-high inverted pick and roll with Ben Simmons handling the ball.

It’s not exactly a pick and roll, though. It’s more of a multi-action brush cut where the second man is typically a shooter who can either screen for Simmons or slip the screen for a quick flare and three-point shot. Sometimes it even looks like a hand-off with a Simmons seal instead.

They ran this about a bazillion times with JJ Redick last year, and I’ve written about it occasionally, but it’s interesting to see how Brown uses this play without the veteran sharp shooter. He’s experimented with different players running this set, and last night, Furkan Korkmaz hit the second of his consecutive fourth-quarter three pointers on the slip portion of the play:

In this case, Brooklyn does not switch, which means Wilson Chandler stays on Simmons. That results in Ben just handing the ball to Korkmaz and screening Spencer Dinwiddie out of the play for an open three-point look.

I asked Furkan about it post game, and he said this:

Crossing Broad: Furkan, when you made the back-to-back threes there, the second was a play they ran a ton for JJ last year. Do you like running that? Is it cool to be put into something that he frequently did during his time here?

Furkan Korkmaz: Yes, especially when you run that play with Ben. It creates a lot of confusion for a defense, like they don’t know how to guard Ben. I think on that play it’s really all about Ben, because he takes responsibility and just creates for me. Of course at the end of the day, when you make the shot you look good, and when you miss you look bad, but when you play with Ben the game is much easier for you. That’s how I feel.

Crossing Broad: Do you go into that play kind of knowing you’re going to slip the screen? Typically defenders seem to be worried about Ben driving to the rim when you run it.

Korkmaz: Usually we’re talking about that before we run the play. Sometimes I’m slipping, sometimes I’m setting for Ben. It depends. After a couple of possessions you start to feel what defenders are going to do, because you’re playing 48 minutes of basketball and they’re not changing their game plan every second at every position. After you get used to it and get that feeling (for what they’re doing defensively), basketball is more easy.

It’s all very true.

One of things that makes that play difficult to guard is Simmons’ ability to quickly get downhill and punish mistakes. You saw that last year when they beat Denver, a play where the Nuggets wound up in a soft hedge and Simmons hesitated just for a brief moment, then took the ball to the rack:

Said Redick at the time:

That’s the same play where I got the four-point play to beat San Antonio. It’s just about putting the defense in a position to make difficult choices. They opted not to switch. I can listen to what my guy is calling. Sometimes he calls ‘switch,’ in which case I’m going to slip. If he’s calling ‘slip,’ then I know I can set a screen and Ben can make the decision. Sometimes that’s kind of hesitation and a late drive, sometimes it’s hesitation where the defense has a screw up and I’m able to slip for a late three.

The latter is what happened last night, a defensive “screw up” and slip for a three, which left Furkan this wide open:

Great execution, a big shot in a big moment to get the crowd back in the game.