Coming off of a 91-83 loss at the hands of the Knicks, the Sixers (0-13) return home with a slew of positives from Saturday's game that will hopefully roll over into tonight's matchup against the streaking Trail Blazers (10-3). Across media outlets, the Sixers losses continue to be magnified as they inch closer and closer to some NBA records no team ever wants to be affiliated with. What folks need to realize is that even if the Sixers went 0-82, it wouldn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.
Saturday night's game was a perfect example of a Sixers win, even though they lost. In their eight point loss, we got to witness Nerlens Noel's best game as a professional NBA player. Noel had a very underwhelming performance against the Suns on Friday night, scoring just three points in 28 minutes of play while grabbing three rebounds and dishing out two assists. The Sixers rookie bounced bag in a big way against New York, tallying career-highs in both points with 17 and rebounds with 12. It was his first double-double and first double-digit rebound effort since the second game of the season against the Bucks. Noel shot 6-for-11 from the floor at hit 50% of his free throws. Nerlens leads all rookies in rebounding, blocks and steals. He played 39 minutes, his most all season.
Meanwhile, Michael Carter-Williams is still adjusting to the game since returning from his shoulder surgery. His jump shot needs a lot of work and he has turned the ball over four or more times in five of the last six games. His stats are bad, shooting just 34.8% from the floor this season in six games played. Though he averages 14.3 points per game, he also averages 4.5 turnovers in addition to his 4.3 assists and 5.7 rebounds. Hopefully Carter-Williams will continue to improve, keeping in mind that the talent he has on the floor this year is even less NBA experienced than last year.
The Sixers will definitely have their work cut out for them as the Blazers come into town top ten in the NBA in points (7th-103.6), rebounds (1st-47.4), assists (6th-23.7) and points allowed (5th-94.6) per game. They've won seven in a row that include wins against Denver twice, New Orleans, Chicago and Charlotte. Their main threat, LeMarcus Aldridge is averaging 21.3 points and 8.6 rebounds through 12 games thus far.
Game Notes:
- Earlier today, we found out Philadelphia is reportedly going to get Furkan Aldemir back from Galatasary after a wage dispute with the Turkish team. Aldemir averaged 15.2 points and 11.9 rebounds per 40 minutes of play over the first six games.
- In 15 games against the Sixers, LeMarcus Aldridge is averaging 18.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
- The Sixers are two defeats away from tying their franchise-worst start of 15 straight losses back in 1972-73. They are five losses away from matching the NBA's league-worst 0-18 start from 2007-08.
- Though the Sixers rank second in the NBA in pace with 100 possessions per 48 minutes, they still rank last in the NBA in points with 88.8 per game. They come in at 10th in the league with 13.8 fastbreak points per game.
Projected Lineups:
Sixers
PG Michael Carter-Williams
SG Tony Wroten
SF Luc Mbah a Moute
PF Brandon Davies
C Henry Sims
Trail Blazers
PG Damian Lillard
SG Wesley Matthews
SF Nicholas Batum
PF LeMarcus Aldridge
C Robin Lopez
Injuries: CJ McCollum (finger) will not play for Portland while the usuals, Joel Embiid (foot), Jerami Grant (ankle) and Jason Richardson (knee/foot) are out for the Sixers.
Prediction: The Blazers are on the second night of a back-to-back, so I think that'll give Philadelphia a chance to keep things close, but Portland takes this one in the end, 111-99.
Brandon Apter is a writer for Sixerdelphia.com
