The 76ers and Wizards shot A LOT of free throws on Wednesday night

The 76ers beat the Wizards Wednesday night at home, but the Wizards helped Ben Simmons break an NBA record.

The Philadelphia 76ers are proving themselves to be a playoff team in the Eastern Conference, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone at this point. With talents like Ben Simmons, Dario Saric and Joel Embiid they have a talented young core.

Obviously these guys are still learning on the fly, but Ben Simmons has one flaw that might be a cause for concern. Simmons absolutely dominated in Wednesday night finishing with 31 points and 18 rebounds, but he’s not the greatest free throw shooter.

Ben Simmons broke an NBA record with 24 free throw attempts in the fourth quarter. As a team the 76ers shot a total of 64 free throws. The Wizards also shot 37 free throws as a team. Add it all up and that’s 101 total free throws. How rare is that? It’s only the 14th time in the past 30 years that two teams combined to shoot more than 100 free throws in a game that ended in regulation.

Shockingly enough only two players fouled out of Wednesday’s game. The Sixers went on to win the game 118-113, but not without a little drama. The Sixers actually led the game by 19 at the start of the fourth quarter which prompted the “hack-a-Simmons”.

Next: What do teams do with non-shooters?

Simmons made six of his last eight free throw attempts to effectively seal the game, but he only hit 15-of-29 overall on the night. On the season he’s only a 55 percent free throw shooter, and it makes sense because he doesn’t even take free throw line jumpers all that often.

Hopefully Simmons can figure his shooting struggles sometime soon otherwise this may not be the last time we see him shoot 20-plus free throws in a game. Maybe he needs to switch to shooting right handed seeing as he’s ambidextrous.