PHILADELPHIA _ Nerlens Noel went from playing 8 minutes, 2 seconds to being out of the 76ers' rotation for the foreseeable future.
The Sixers say it has to do with their logjam at the center, with three starting-caliber players in Noel, Joel Embiid, and Jahlil Okafor. Coach Brett Brown was adamant Sunday that it had nothing to do with Noel's voicing his displeasure in playing just 8:02 against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. The 6-foot-11, 231-pounder did not believe his remarks had anything to do with it, either.
"I think this has been decided a long time ago," Noel said Sunday before a 108-107 victory over the Brooklyn Nets at the Wells Fargo Center. "I think it had nothing to do with it. It's something that's been set in stone."
The Sixers (7-20) snapped their eight-game home losing streak while the Nets (7-19) extended two losing streaks. They lost their ninth consecutive game road game. It was also their ninth straight loss to an Eastern Conference opponent.
As Noel was relegated to the bench, Embiid and Okafor were paired together in the starting lineup for the third consecutive game. This time, they had better reviews.
The two played together for the first 5:27 of the first quarter and then again for the first 5:33 of the third quarter. For the rest of the game, they rotated in and out at the center position. Embiid finished with a career-best 33 points to go along with 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.
Okafor scored three points while having a rough shooting night. He missed all 10 of his shots. He did finish with 11 rebounds.
The Sixers took a 108-104 lead on Ersan Ilyasova's two foul shots with 4.6 seconds remaining. But Jeremy Lin hit a foul shot close the gap to one point with 2.5 seconds left. After an errant pass by Gerald Henderson, the Nets had a chance to score the go-ahead basket but couldn't their hands on the ball before time expired.
But on this night, most of the attention went to Noel.
The YES Network, which televises Nets games, did a close-up of him on the bench. But to his credit, Noel didn't show any signs of displeasure. He even smiled while walking to the court for pregame warm-ups.
"You've just got to prepare yourself with things like these and take it one step at a time and at the same time be a pro and depend on the things you've got to work on," Noel said.
The big man either had a change of heart or was coached up before speaking the media during pregame. That's because he had voiced his displeasure with the Sixers logjam at the center position before the start of training camp.
But up until recently, the Sixers didn't have to try to figure things out.
That's because Noel missed the first 23 games with an inflamed tissue above his left knee. He scored eight points in 10 minutes in his season debut against the Detroit Pistons on Dec. 11. He missed the second half of the game and sat out Wednesday's matchup against the Toronto Raptors with a left ankle sprain.
Noel returned to action Friday against the Lakers and recorded two points, five rebounds and one block while playing all his minutes in the first half.
He voiced his displeasure with that in the locker room.
"I'm not an eight-minute player. So I don't know what that's about," Noel said at the time. "I don't really care [who he's paired with]. I need to be on the court playing basketball. I'm too good to be playing eight minutes right now _ that's crazy, that's crazy, that's crazy. Need to figure this [stuff] out."
Then two days later, he didn't get off the bench because of the coach's decision. Brown said "trying to force feed three bigs in a game is unfair." The Sixers also felt it created a ripple effect on other players on the team. As they tried to play the three centers, power forward Dario Saric was forced play small forward, where he struggled. Meanwhile, power forward Ilyasova (who scored 22 points Sunday) was as ineffective since his minutes were slashed.
"I said it before and I will say it again," Brown said. "I personally have a soft spot for Nerlens Noel. We both have Boston connections and he's been with me for a long time. Nerlens' heart has been in the right place. He's in a very unfortunate situation."
While this situation hurt Noel, Brown later said the logjam hurt Embiid, Ilyasova and Saric.
Sixers reserve Nik Staukas was sidelined with left knee soreness.
