Trail Blazers’ Anfernee Simons scores 28 points following 6-week absence: ‘I think I played pretty well’

Anfernee Simons returned to the court Wednesday night for the Portland Trail Blazers after missing six weeks with an injured right thumb and picked up right where he left off.

He took 27 shots. And although Simons made just 10, he scored a team-high 28 points and hit 6 of 12 three-pointers during a 110-106 loss at the Golden State Warriors.

“I thought Ant did a good job for being out so long,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups told reporters at the Chase Center. “I thought his rhythm was pretty good. His wind was pretty good. Obviously, we needed his shot making.”

That they do. The Blazers (6-14), who have been shooting better lately, rank last in points per game (105.2) and field goal percentage (43.4%), and 28th in three-point shooting (33.8%).

Simons will certainly help in those areas. He said he felt good physically against the Warriors and was comfortable with his teammates, many of whom he has barely played with before.

“I just wanted to go out there and compete, just how they had been doing while I was out,” Simons told reporters. “So, overall, I think I played pretty well, personally. There’s a couple of plays that I wish I had back for sure. But overall, I think I was catching my rhythm pretty good.”

Simons scored eight points in the first quarter on 3-of-10 shooting but hit 2 of 4 threes. In the second quarter, he made just one of four shots for three points.

“There was a couple shots that I liked that didn’t fall,” Simons said. “But I felt like I was getting the right shots for me.”

Simons shot much better in the second half, sinking 6 of 13 shots for 17 points.

“I just wanted to get us into a good rhythm,” Simons said of his second-half performance. “So, I hit the three and then they started blitzing and I started just hitting the pocket a whole bunch of times and we started gaining momentum from there.”

Simons had three of his four assists in the second half.

The Blazers entered this season looking forward to seeing Simons play alongside new center Deandre Ayton with Jerami Grant on the wing and a mix of Shaedon Sharpe and rookie Scoot Henderson.

They saw some of that during the preseason and in the season-opening loss at the LA Clippers before Simons injured his thumb.

As bad luck would have it, Simons returned to action only to find Ayton (knee soreness) and Grant (concussion protocol) out of the lineup.

Simons started alongside Sharpe, veteran Malcolm Brogdon and rookies Toumani Camara and Duop Reath. Other than Sharpe, Simons had never played a full regular-season game with the others, and Brogdon left the game with knee soreness in the second quarter.

The team held practice Monday and Tuesday before heading to Golden State. That’s the only time the Blazers had to adjust to a high-volume shooter such as Simons.

“I thought we played pretty well based off of that,” he said.

Simons ended up playing 37 minutes but said he didn’t feel gassed at all. In the fourth quarter, Simons persuaded Billups to keep him in the game.

“He was thinking about taking me out for a sec,” Simons said. “I’m like, ‘I’m good. I’m just going to pace myself a little bit in the fourth quarter.’ I think I did fairly well. I don’t really like get, like exhausted until like one minute left in the game.”

The team led most of the game before falling off in the fourth quarter, when they were outscored 28-20.

Simons said a lack of chemistry hurt when the game was on the line. But he looked forward to building better team cohesion with the young players and getting on the floor with the veterans when they return.

“We will be able to play a much better game and spread it out a little bit and be able to execute at a high level,” Simons said.

-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook)

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