Sixers trounce Nerlens Noel and the Mavericks
The 76ers ruined Nerlens Noel's homecoming. Noel had said he had Friday night circled on his calendar shortly after the Sixers traded him to the Dallas Mavericks for Justin Anderson, Andrew Bogut and protected first-round pick. Now, it's a night he may want to forget.
The 76ers ruined Nerlens Noel's homecoming.
Noel had said he had Friday night circled on his calendar shortly after the Sixers traded him to the Dallas Mavericks for Justin Anderson, Andrew Bogut and protected first-round pick. Now, it's a night he may want to forget.
That's because the Sixers humiliated the Mavs, 116-74, at the Wells Fargo Center. The 42-point win was the Sixers' largest margin of victory since beating the Milwaukee Bucks, 112-69, on Jan. 30, 2008.
Friday's game got out of hand in the third quarter. The Sixers then led by 41 points (97-56) with 9 minutes, 13 seconds left.
This outcome was a shocker.
The Sixers (25-43) went into the matchup losers of five of their last six games. Meanwhile, the Mavs (29-39) are still in the hunt for a Western Conference playoff spot. And Dallas had the Sixers' number, winning the last eight series meeting before Friday.
What happened?
"You know, underestimating the Sixers," Noel said. "You know as an underdog playing on that team; teams never knew what we could bring."
And they brought the hammer on this night.
The 74 points scored by Dallas were a season-low by a Sixers' opponent. The Sixers also held a commanding 55-34 advantage in rebounding. And they had a 29-5 edge in fastbreak points.
"We have been on the other side of these types of things," said coach Brett Brown, whose squad had 32 assists on 42 made baskets. "It is rare for us to be looking at a game like this. I think all of our guys played well."
The Sixers had nine players with two assists or more. They also had five guys with at least seven rebounds.
"When you have things like that happen . . ., it is not about me against my old team," Anderson said. "It is a team thing and a great thing we accomplished, and we want to keep trying to make things like that happen."
But this game was all about Noel's return to Philly. Or so we thought.
He said Friday morning that he would be nervous facing the Sixers for the first time.
About 40 minutes before the game, after already signing a plethora of autographs and posing for pictures and participating in an impromptu half-court shooting contest, Noel acknowledged that he had some jitters.
"I feel good man," he said at that time. "I'm a little nervous, but a lot more excitement."
Noel finished with nine points on 4-for-7 shooting to go with five rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block in 18 minutes, 35 seconds. He did not play in the fourth quarter of the blowout.
Anderson went postal on his former team. He scored a career-high-tying 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting. He also had eight rebounds.
"I'm happy for him," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said of Anderson. "I did not want to trade him, but we needed to do it to get another good player. . . . He earned this performance tonight."
Even though he flexed and stared at the Mavs' bench after one dunk, Anderson was trying to be politically correct after the game.
"As much as people wanted it to be about Nerlens and I and him returning here and me playing against the Mavs, it was a great team victory by us," he said. "We all contributed in different ways. We had a huge margin of victory, so for us as a team it was great."
Richaun Holmes started in place of Jahlil Okafor at center, because he was a better matchup against Mavs center Dirk Nowitzki. It proved to be the right decision. Holmes scored six of the Sixers' first eight points en route to his 17 points and two steals. Robert Covington had 18 points and nine rebounds.
But on this night, most of the attention was focused on Noel.
The New Orleans Pelicans selected him sixth overall in the 2013 draft and then traded him to the Sixers. Brown said seeing Noel on Friday night in another uniform was kind of awkward.
"He certainly was a team favorite and I think a fan favorite," Brown said. "Now to see him in a different uniform, we wish him well. He is in a better place and he can progress his future, and I suppose just his family's future is better than he was able to do here and we wish him well."
Noel will become a restricted free agent this summer. The Mavs are expected to sign him to a lucrative contract and make him their starting center. The Sixers weren't going to do either.
That's part of the reason why they traded him. The Sixers wanted to get something in return instead of letting him just walk away in free agency.
So on this night, Noel faced the players he refers to as "my guys."
"It was the first time in there," Noel said of the visitors' locker room. "So it was an odd feeling."
But the Sixers left him a framed blue No. 4 Noel Sixers jersey that he signed at the shootaround as a way to thank him for his years of service. He went into the Sixers' laundry room, weight room, locker room and coaches offices to shake hands and converse with his former teammates and coaches. Then Noel participated in a half-court shooting contest with Covington and Ben Simmons after his pregame warm-up.
Then he signed autographs and posed for selfies with fans. The Sixers honored him on the scoreboard with 7:14 left in the first quarter. Then Noel received a partial standing ovation when he checked in 29 seconds later.
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