Anfernee Simons played the game of his life with a heavy heart.

The Portland Trail Blazers guard poured in a career-high 43 points and doled out seven assists in his team's thrilling 136-131 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night, going toe to toe with Trae Young as an injured Damian Lillard watched from the sideline. The victory ended a four-game losing streak for Portland, which played without its starting backcourt as Simons, Jusuf Nurkic and Robert Covington all returned from missing time due to COVID-19.

Simons' stay in health-and-safety protocols was brief; he was out just one game after testing positive for coronavirus last Wednesday. A subsequent test came back negative, allowing Simons to fly to Orlando on Friday to visit his ailing grandfather, who'd recently been diagnosed with an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. Jake Carter, known as “Papa” to Simons, died on Sunday at 79 as his grandson landed back in Portland.

“Honestly, I feel like he was just waiting for me to get there,” Simons said. “It was great to see him for the last time.”

Carter played a “pivotal” role in Simons' youth, making him breakfast, picking him up from school and driving him to basketball practice after retiring when the 22-year-old guard was in fifth grade. Simons entered Monday's game in the midst of weeks-long struggles, averaging 10.3 points on 33.0% shooting since December.

Even with an Atlanta defense poised to hone in on him absent Portland's primary ball handlers, though, Simons knew before tipoff that Monday's game would mark the end of his lengthy slump.

“Something felt different about today. I knew kind of in the back of my mind that it was gonna be a great night,” he said. “I knew it was gonna be a great night because he's there, my Papa was there to help me along the way.”

It's safe to say Simons wouldn't be where he is now without Carter, whose daily wardrobe was comprised of all Blazers gear. Carter wasn't his grandson's most vocal, rambunctious supporter, but no one was more proud of Simons' burgeoning NBA career than Papa.

That growth was on full display against the Hawks, Simons decimating one of the league's worst defenses with effortless triples off the bounce and catch, smooth floaters after creasing the paint and a canny overall floor game that belies his scant experience as an alpha dog playmaker.

Simons has long been capable of ridiculous shot-making; his nine triples matched a career-best first set last season.What really separated Monday's performance from Simons' other red-hot shooting nights is the poise, control and understanding he exhibited when Atlanta began selling out to stop him.

“We're all just kind of seeing his confidence continue to grow,” Chauncey Billups said of SimonsWe all knew he's a knockdown shooter. But the places he gets to on the floor, even when they take the shot away from him, is continuing to get better. His playmaking—he's kinda starting to see where defenses are rotating on him.”

Two of Nurkic's baskets in crunch-time came out of basic ball-screen action with Simons, who took easy and immediate advantage of the Hawks committing two defenders to the ball.

Simons knew when and how to get his own in the clutch, too.

This Euro-step floater right through Young came as Atlanta grew increasingly worried about Nurkic scoring on the block. All it took for Simons to get a head of steam toward the paint was a subtle post-entry fake to Nurkic, followed by a quick left-to-right crossover as Young briefly bit on the initial deception.

You could see Simons thinking during his first three years in the league. Steeled by Billups' steadfast belief in his all-around abilities plus a training camp spent getting endless reps as Portland's full-time backup point guard, Simons is far more comfortable this season making plays for himself and his teammates off the dribble.

That progress was palpable throughout the first few weeks of 2021-22, as Simons pushed for a bigger role, more minutes and a permanent place in the Blazers' closing five. Simons is scoring just below a point per possession while running a career-high 3.9 pick-and-rolls per game this season, per NBA.com/stats, efficiency that ranks in the 85th percentile league-wide. His 5.0 drives per game are also a new high-water mark, and Simons is passing on 36.1% of those forays to the rim, nearly four points higher than last season.

The eye test didn't hasn't supported that encouraging data over the last few weeks, though, Simons' overall effectiveness curtailed by a jumper that wasn't falling. That's the next frontier for his game—finding ways to bend defenses and make life easier on his teammates even when Simons' shot is wayward. He provided many more positive glimpses of that possibility against Atlanta, but they still mostly came as a corollary of his scorching shooting from beyond the arc.

Simons will be a restricted free agent this summer. The Blazers' state of flux means he could be trade bait for a bigger name before the deadline comes and goes on February 10th, or a key, long-term building block for a revamped roster next season. No matter where he's playing going forward, the best environment for Simons' evolution will be one in which he's readily empowered, forced to do more than spot up on the weak side and launch the random off-dribble triple to keep defenses honest.

Shouldering that bigger burden came especially easy to him on Monday. While his jaw-dropping performance was a helpful reminder of Simons' immense offensive gifts, don't expect nights like that to ever be his new norm. Papa was with him to help Simons take his game to a higher plane, when his team and his psyche needed it most.

“I really can't take credit for how I played tonight,” Simons said. “This is all him, honestly. I give credit to him, dedicated this whole game to him.”