Nerlens Noel went OFF tonight, going for a career-high 23 pts and adding 14 boards (7 offensive!), 5 steals, and 3 blocks in powering the Sixers to a 97-81 win over the league-worst New York Knicks. I love writing "league worst New York Knicks." So much fun.
The Knicks simply had no answer for Nerlens tonight, who was throwing down lobs from Ish Smith (more on that in a second), grabbing his own misses for putbacks, expertly fronting Cole Aldrich, Jason Smith, and every other mediocre big man the Knicks had, and generally just dominating, something we haven't seen Nerlens do a ton of this year. He really did look like a dominant big man tonight, and it was damn fun to watch.
Nerlens Noel is the youngest player in NBA history to put up at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 blocks in a game. #Elias
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 21, 2015
There is no denying that Nerlens has really looked like a different player since the trade deadline. Part of that could just be him asserting himself more, assuming the role of de facto leader on a young team with few veterans. But part of this surge is basketball related, specifically that Nerlens might be better with MCW gone. He was quoted in a recent Grantland piece as saying with respect to the MCW trade that, "There’s a lot more room now. It’s opening certain things up. The ball moves a lot more, and I think guys are able to play a lot more fluid and smooth.”
The growing rapport between Nerlens and Ish Smith isn't hurting either. The two seem to have more chemistry in the 10 or so games they've played together than MCW and Nerlens ever did. We're finally getting all those lobs to Nerlens all us fans dreamed about, it's just we thought they'd be coming from MCW. Ish had 6 pts and 5 assists at the end of the first quarter last night, and finished the game with 15 pts and 9 dimes, most of which were lobs or passes in traffic to Nerlens. Ish had a assist% (percent of teammates buckets he assists on while on the floor) of 61% (for reference, Russel Westbrook leads the league with 47.8%). On the year, MCW has a assist% of 38.7% to Ish Smith's 42.5%. This isn't to rag on MCW, it's just to say we don't seem to miss him. And Nerlens is definitely experiencing some addition by subtraction. What the Sixers do at the point this summer will be interesting. One imagines they cannot keep both Ish and Canaan, and with Mudiay and D'Angelo Russell on the draft board, who knows who will be running the offense come next year.
Speaking of the draft, to borrow a Zu-ism, it's the guts of the tanking game, and the Sixers have decided to get hot. This was the Sixers 2nd win in a row, the 4th time this year they have won back to back games. They also have won 4 out of their last 7 games, the 3rd time they have done so this year. Even by the eye test, the Sixers seem to be playing some of their best offensive basketball of the year. The Knicks? Not so much.
Has enough been made of how terrible the Knicks are? And I'm not throwing out that typical Sixers fan complaint of "Why does everyone complain about our tanking and not the Knicks'?" No, I'm wondering why are we not talking about how terrible that team is in general? Especially given they came into the year trying to win. Obviously they shut it down around the All-Star break and decided to go full tank, but the damage was already done at that point. Derrick Fisher can't even make a facial expression at this point – he's just frozen in disgust. It's just 48 straight minutes of this:
If there is any question as to who is the worst team in the NBA, the scheduling gods just answered that. The Sixers, T-Wolves, and Knicks are the bottom 3 teams. The Knicks just played the Sixers and T-Wolves back-to-back, and lost both of them (the T-Wolves game went to OT). Meanwhile the Sixers swept the T-Wolves this year, winning both matchups. Ok, I'm done piling on the Knicks.
The Sixers look to continue their winning ways against the Lakers tomorrow night, another team in the cellar of the standings. The Sixers draft haul might benefit from a Sixers loss in that game, but I'd love to see them get 3-in-a-row once this year.
