Noel Breaks Out as Sixers Batter Knicks

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Philadelphia 97, New York 81 – Box Score

The next time people argue the Sixers are blatantly trying to lose games, bring up Friday night’s game against the Knicks as your ‘glove don’t fit’ or Chewbacca defense. After Nerlens Noel slightly injured his foot in the latter portion of Wednesday’s game against the Pistons, the Sixers had every reason to hold him out from play two days later. Any of the other so-called tankers in the NBA would have done it. Instead, the Sixers gave Noel the green light in a game with huge lottery implications. Bad news: the Sixers lost some hypothetical ping pong balls. Good news: this may be the night we look back on as the true breakout performance for Nerlens.

In an alternate universe, Noel would have played Hampton Thursday night as a college junior. In this reality, he went out and had his best game as a professional, recording a career-high 23 points, 14 rebounds, 5 steals, and 3 blocks. Not that the likes of Lou Amundson and Jason Smith typically offer any great resistance, but Nerlens was playing on a whole other level from his opposition the entire contest. Any Knicks foray to the basket was met with a staunch rejection from the rookie of the year candidate.

https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.jsNoel’s play on both ends was the biggest factor in the Sixers holding a 46-28 advantage on points in the paint. The only reason the Knicks were able to hang around was a revenge game from Alexey Shved, who scored a career-high 25 points by hitting a ridiculous 7-8 threes. Yes, that’s the same Alexey Shved who is a career 30% shooter from behind the arc. Still, Noel was there at every turn to help extend the Sixers’ lead, his points often coming off great feeds from Ish Smith. Smith received another start from Coach Brown and rewarded Brett’s decision with 15 points and 9 assists, continuing to hone his great rapport with the Sixers’ star rookie. https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js

Now, I feel somewhat compelled to throw a wet blanket on this burning fire of Nerlens Noel excitement. With the win, the Sixers are tied with the Lakers in the win column. Given the recent trajectory of all teams involved, the Sixers seem very unlikely to drop back down to the Knicks or Wolves, and I’d wager they end up with a better record than LA as well. Instead of a top-3 pick and a reasonable chance at the Lakers’ selection, the Sixers may very well end up with just their own pick around pick number 4. Nevertheless, I think Sixers fans and management would gladly trade some lottery balls for Noel continuing to ball out himself. The Sixers are looking for building blocks and it looks like they have found one.