No Noel, no chance as Sixers fall to 0-7

TORONTO - Soon the creative ways to convey just how awful the 76ers' health has been this season will run out.

Sunday night, the Sixers were again without post players Nerlens Noel and Malcolm Thomas in their 120-88 loss to the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre. This marked their worst loss since a 43-point defeat by the Golden State Warriors on Feb. 10.

"That was not us," Sixers coach Brett Brown said. "We came in here and we got manhandled. . . . We got jumped, and we didn't have any answers."

The blowout loss dropped the Sixers to 0-7 for the first time since they lost their first 15 games during the 1972-73 season. Those Sixers finished 9-73, setting the NBA futility record.

The 1972-73 squad was just bad. This season's squad is bad, inexperienced, and injury-riddled.

Noel is dealing with a sprained ankle, and Thomas is expected to be sidelined for an extended period of time with fluid on his left knee.

Point guard Michael Carter-Williams, who has not played this season because of right-shoulder surgery, is expected to make his regular-season debut Thursday at the Dallas Mavericks.

But with those players sidelined Sunday, the Sixers had only nine able bodies against the Eastern Conference-leading Raptors (6-1).

"They would have helped. It's hard playing small ball against this big team," said Brown, whose team played with just three post players - center Henry Sims and power forwards Luc Mbah a Moute and Brandon Davies.

"We scratched and clawed doing everything we could playing legitimate small ball against the [Chicago] Bulls [in Friday's 118-115 loss]," Brown added. "And we just couldn't replicate it.

"It just wasn't going to be."

Noel is listed as day-to-day. Brown thought he had a chance to play against the Raptors.

"So I feel the next game, that's realistic," the coach said. "But really, who knows?"

Noel suffered the injury in the third quarter of Wednesday's loss to the Orlando Magic. The 6-foot-11, 217-pounder hasn't practiced since.

"I'm expecting to be practicing tomorrow," Noel said. "But my ankle feels pretty good. I just have some soreness, and the swelling is pretty much close to gone."

This preseason, he missed one game with a charley horse in his right quadriceps and was sidelined for three others with an upper respiratory infection.

But this injury occurred while he was basically walking in the paint after a play.

"I watched the video a few times, and I still don't know how it happened," Noel said. "I was in some traffic and stepped on something."

Meanwhile, Thomas has been playing with fluid on his left knee for the last two weeks. He had an MRI on Tuesday, and didn't make the trip to Canada.

The fourth-year veteran has loose cartilage floating around his knee. He is expected to announce, through the Sixers, that he has decided to undergo surgery to clean out the knee. The surgery will sideline the 6-9, 225-pounder for about four weeks.

On Sunday, the Sixers made just 33 of 87 shots (37.9 percent) from the field, shot 10 of 34 on three-pointers (29.4 percent), and allowed Toronto to shoot 56.6 percent (43 of 76) from the field.

The Raptors had their third 41-point cushion (118-77) on Greivis Vasquez's reverse layup with 2 minutes, 3 seconds remaining.

"We go from almost beating Chicago to getting embarrassed like this," said point guard Tony Wroten, who paced the Sixers with 18 points and five assists.

Toronto shooting guard DeMar DeRozan led all scorers with 24 points.

Brown believes his team got dispirited for the first time this season.

"We could have," Wroten said. "It's tough to stay high when you are down 30, 40 points. But it's a learning experience for all of us."

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