The Toronto Raptors defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of their second-round Eastern Conference playoff series on Sunday night courtesy of a Kawhi Leonard buzzer-beater that bounced around the rim four times before eventually falling. Former NBA defensive savant Bruce Bowen was not too happy with Ben Simmons' effort in defending Leonard on the shot, saying that the Sixers point stopped trying to guard Leonard too soon.

I will say that it was a pretty poor defensive strategy from the get-go, as Bowen is correct in that Simmons should not have let Leonard get to his dominant hand, and Kawhi did blow by him pretty easily.

However, as for Simmons' effort? I'm not sure I'm with Bowen there.

Simmons defended Leonard for as long as he could until Joel Embiid stepped in to provide some help defense. Embiid had Leonard adequately defended, and with time ticking down, there really wasn't much else Simmons could have done.

Embiid came with good help and contested the shot with his 7-foot-1 frame. There isn't much else you can ask for.

Leonard just made the shot because, well, he's really, really good.

If you want to criticize Simmons for something, maybe you could have gotten on his case for his no-show on offense down the stretch, especially when the 76ers were starving for a bucket.

But ripping him for what was a pretty okay defensive effort on the final play is going a little overboard.

Simmons finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the loss.