Simmon blames self after Phoenix’s third straight loss

Marcus Simmons. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Marcus Simmons isn’t blaming anything or anyone but himself after Phoenix suffered its third straight loss Saturday night.

Simmons had a nightmarish outing, scoring measly seven points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field in a 106-89 setback at the hands of Rain or Shine in a game where the Fuel Masters led by as much as 11 points late in the third quarter.

“I played like s**t and I gotta man up to it and I’ll be ready to play next game,” Simmons told reporters.

The 28-year-old Simmons rued his poor start, a scoreless opening quarter that he couldn’t recover from.

“I started off bad from the first quarter. I gotta be more prepared for the game and just bring it. I can’t start off like that, it just carried over the whole game. I can’t get in any rhythm because of foul trouble,” said Simmons.

“This is probably the worst game I played in my life. I feel bad for letting my team down so next week, I just gotta bring it in practice and hopefully get the win, that’s it.”

In his first three games in the PBA, Simmons has had trouble keeping himself out of foul trouble. He fouled out in his debut against Meralco, committed four fouls versus San Miguel Beer last Sunday and had five Saturday night.

“I won’t blame the officiating. I just gotta be ready play. I missed a lot of easy shots and I let that get into my head and I was committing stupid fouls,” said Simmons, who averaged 24.5 points per game in his first two outings. “I ended up on the bench and when I get back in the game and I didn’t have a rhythm so it’s not the officiating. I won’t blame the officiating.”