By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The Philadelphia 76ers (7-20) aim to make it two in a row tonight against the New Orleans Pelicans (9-20) at the Wells Fargo Center. The Sixers and Pelicans already met once this season with Philadelphia emerging victorious in an 11-point victory. New Orleans star and NBA's leading scorer Anthony Davis is coming off of his worst game of the season while Sixers rookie Joel Embiid is coming off his best. The Pelicans have lost eight of their last 10 games.
While we didn't get to see Davis and Embiid match-up too much in the first meeting, Philadelphia has been starting Joel at power forward, so he could very likely open the game up guarding Davis. At this point, it seems like Nerlens Noel will continue to sit as the team evaluates the Embiid/Okafor pairing, but Bryan Colangelo made it clear that it doesn't mean Noel won't play just because he's currently not in the rotation. More on that later on in the preview…
Last Meeting:
The Sixers and Pelicans met back on December 8 in New Orleans, a 99-88 win for the Sixers, which snapped the teams' long-standing 23-game road losing streak dating back to last season. Joel Embiid finished with 14 points on 5-for-15 shooting to go along with seven rebounds in the game. Anthony Davis had a good stat line, despite shooting just 8-for-21, ending the night with 26 points and 11 boards. Philadelphia trailed by five at halftime, but held the Pelicans to just 12 points in the third and 19 in the fourth, outscoring them 47-31 in the second half. Ersan Ilyasova led Sixers scorers with 23 while Sergio Rodriguez had 16 points and eight assists.
Noel Being Evaluated, Not Benched:
On Monday, Sixers president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo sat down with the media for over 48 minutes to discuss a variety of topics, most specifically the teams' logjam at center, why nothing has been done to resolve it and what the plan is with Nerlens Noel moving forward. Prior to Sunday's game against Brooklyn, Sixers head coach Brett Brown said Noel had been removed from the center rotation for the foreseeable future. Colangelo clarified the comments on Tuesday, saying that Noel isn't being benched, but the team is rather evaluating different pairings right now.
“This is not a benching. This is just a moment of realization that we’ve got a lot of talent on this team and not everybody can play. At some point, you will see him out on the court. When that is, again, it doesn’t need to be black and white with respect to timing or number of games.”
Colangelo went on to talk about how there was never any opportunity to trade any of the three centers due to the health concerns of them. Jahlil Okafor was coming off knee surgery, Nerlens Noel suffered a groin injury in the preseason, underwent a minor knee surgery and then sprained his ankle his first day back. Also, Joel Embiid's health was a unknown. All of those things seem to be what has kept the team from trading one of their bigs and Colangelo said there's a chance no deal is made this season at all.
“I can understand where he’s frustrated that he comes back and faces the same situation that he faced at the beginning of training camp,” Colangelo told reporters while speaking on Noel. “But I don’t think at any point we’ve been in a position as an organization to actively pursue a trade of any of the centers given the fact that there was so much uncertainty with respect to their health and their availability.”
At this point, it seems the Sixers are still trying to determine whether Noel is a fit for the roster moving forward, but I think we all know that he's likely talked himself out of the picture.
Holiday Time in Philadelphia:
Former Sixers point guard Jrue Holiday returns to Philadelphia tonight as a member of the Pelicans after missing the first six weeks of the season tending to his wife, who had a benign brain tumor removed and also gave birth to their first daughter. When Holiday returned, New Orleans won five straight at home, he suffered a toe injury that caused him to miss some games. In seven appearances this season, Holiday is averaging 14.6 points and six assists and his team is 7-5 when he is on the court. The 26-year-old guard played four seasons with the Sixers. Since leaving in a trade for Nerlens Noel, Holiday has played Philadelphia three times, averaging 19.3 points and 12.3 assists in those contests.
Sixers Rookie Report:
Not a whole lot has changed with the top rookie in the NBA, as Joel Embiid continues to progress as a young big man in the league. He lead's the 2016-17 rookie class in scoring (18.3 ppg), rebounds (7.4 rpg), blocks (2.5 bpg) and three-point field goal percentage (44.2). Fellow rookie Dario Saric ranks second in scoring (9.4 ppg) and rebounding (5.8 rpg).
Previous Game Rewind:
Sixers: Philadelphia got a rookie season-high 33-point effort from Joel Embiid in a one-point win over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. The rookie phenom scored 17 of his 33 in the third quarter and even dove into the stands chasing after a lose ball for the second time this season. The Sixers scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to take a 94-86 lead. Embiid went to the bench and returned with his team clinging to a one-point lead. Brooklyn got a key bucket from Brook Lopez to put them ahead but Embiid answered with a three ball to put the Sixers ahead once again, 100-98. Philadelphia ended up winning 108-107 after the Nets converted a pair of three's in the final moments.
Pelicans: New Orleans is coming off of a 113-100 loss to San Antonio, a game that saw Anthony Davis, the NBA's leading scorer, tally just 12 points. The Pelicans' starting backcourt shot just 4-for-13 and the Spurs used fundamental basketball to earn the win, with six players scoring in double figures, 31 assists on 42 baskets while committing just 13 turnovers and shooting 49 percent from the field.
| Matchup Preview | December 20, 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| New Orleans Pelicans (9-20, 3-11 Away) |
Philadelphia 76ers (7-20, 5-13 Home) |
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Game Information:
Tip-off: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TV: CSN Philly
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Stream Live: CSNPhilly.com, NBC Sports Live Extra
