Noel dinged again as Sixers lose to Bulls
Nerlens Noel finishes with 14 points, despite what seemed to be a hamstring pull
LAS VEGAS - OK, is it time to start getting a little concerned?
Nerlens Noel played for the 76ers last night against the Chicago Bulls in the Las Vegas Summer League, but again pulled up lame in the middle of the game. After twice rolling his left ankle in previous games, Noel appeared to tweak his right hamstring last night during the Sixers'79-68 loss to the Bulls. They are 2-3 in Las Vegas.
The team said that he went back to the locker room for an ankle retape, but it sure appeared as if he was grabbing his right hamstring and was getting it massaged by a trainer right in front of reporters. No matter, he did return to the game.
It was Noel's first action since Monday and he looked active again, collecting 14 points and five rebounds in just under 24 minutes of play. In his second game in the Orlando Summer League, he turned an ankle, but played through it that game. Once in Las Vegas, he tweaked the same ankle, but again played through it that game. He did sit the two games after that before returning last night.
"Every day, the trainers get with him and see how he's feeling on everything," said Sixers summer league coach Chad Iske. "We're just really trying to play it as cautious as possible. We don't want him to go out there when he's not feeling 100 percent."
He rarely has during the five games that he's played this summer. Perhaps it's because he's trying to get his legs under him after missing 18 months on the court recovering from his ACL surgery. That is the hope for the organization, obviously.
In the game, Jordan McRae led the Sixers with 25 points while, K.J. McDaniels was the only other Sixer in double figures, with 11 points.
The Bulls were led by Cameron Bairstow and Tony Snow had 18 points each. Doug McDermott and Lazeric Jones added 11 points each, and Austin Freeman scored 10.