The Sixer Sense
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Tank War Part II: Sixers Lose Game, Get Better Draft Pick

Eric Mullin|

This game had just about everything you could expect from a Lakers-Sixers game late in the season with the third worst record on the line. There were pre-game “scratches”, Jeremy Lin for the Lakers, Jerami Grant and Luc Mbah a Moute for the Sixers, leaving both sides with only ten active players. There were random career highs on both sides, Jabari Brown with 22 points and Glenn Robinson III with eight points.

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Furkan Aldemir fouled out after just over 20 minutes of action. Thomas Robinson posterized Robert Sacre. There was even Ryan Kelly taking the ball all 94 feet for a coast-to-coast dunk at one point. Everything that you can possibly imagine happening in a Sixers-Lakers match-up actually happened Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

But ultimately part two of the tank fest could be best summed up as the “perfect Sixers loss.” The Sixers went up big early, allowed the Lakers to get back into the game, and kept the game competitive until the final buzzer. It was a close, fun game to watch in the second half, but ultimately the Sixers fell to the Lakers 113-111 following a Jordan Clarkson lay-in with .7 seconds remaining in OT.  The Lakers victory moves them two games ahead of the Sixers for the fourth-worst record with only seven games remaining for Philly.

Stars of the Game

Ish Smith– 17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists

Ish Smith continues to impress me with his strong play. I’ll admit that I tweeted that I was over Smith as a Sixer just a couple minutes into his first game here. He’s not the franchise point-guard, but he has impressed and proved me wrong. Ish has been really good at running the offense, breaking down the defense, and creating open looks for his teammates.

All things that a certain former-Sixer point guard (hi MCW) struggled to do. He isn’t great at the whole shooting thing (hi again MCW), but that’s ok for this team as Smith is usually surrounded by shooters. Smith was aggressive in this game notching 17 points, although it took 20 shots, and made some really nice drives to the hoop. Smith also connected with Noel for a couple more really nice alley-oops.

Nerlens Noel– 19 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 1 steal

Tonight was Noel’s worst shooting night, 7-of-18 from the field, in a while, but boy was he active. Noel started at the four for the second game in a row, but not much changed as he was all over the place, diving on the floor for loose balls and tracking down rebounds. Noel’s blocks may go down at the four, as he will be on the perimeter a lot more, but he still makes his presence felt on the defensive end.

There were two really awesome moments for Noel tonight. The first occurred as the score was tied at 100 with 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Brett Brown called Noel’s number late in the game for the second night in a row. Nerlens got the ball off the inbounds and immediately drove to the hoop and got fouled. The Rookie of the Year to be then stepped to the line and hit two clutch free throws to give the Sixers the lead.

With 25 seconds left in OT, Noel stepped to the line again with a chance to tie the game, but he missed both attempts. After the Sixers were able to control the rebound off the second miss, the Sixers called timeout, and Brown called Noel’s number once again. Off a pick-and-roll Noel caught the ball in space in the paint and went right up with a lefty floater to tie to the game and redeem himself from missing the two free throws. A really cool end of game sequence to watch in the growth of the Nerlens.

Tweet of the Game(s):

18 shots wasn’t enough for Nerlens, so he had to get one more off post-game:

Vine of the Game:

Stockton to Malo… I mean Ish Smith to Nerlens

Stat of the Game

Next Game

Wednesday vs. Washington, 7:00 PM tip.