PHILADELPHIA_The Philadelphia 76ers ruined Nerlens Noel's homecoming.
Noel had said he had Friday night circled on his calendar shortly after the Sixers traded him to the Dallas Mavericks for Justin Anderson, Andrew Bogut and protected first-round pick. Now, it's a night he may want to forget.
That's because the Sixers humiliated the Mavs, 116-74, at Wells Fargo Center. Their 42-point win was the Sixers largest margin of victory since beating the Milwaukee Bucks, 112-69, on Jan. 30, 2008.
Friday's game got out of hand in the third quarter. The Sixers then led by 41 points (97-56) with 9 minutes, 13 seconds left.
This outcome was a shocker.
The Sixers (25-43) went into the matchup losers of five of their last six games. Meanwhile, the Mavs (29-39) are still in the hunt for a Western Conference playoff game. And Dallas had the Sixers' number, winning the last eight series meeting before Friday.
But this game was all about Noel's return to Philly. Or so we thought.
He said Friday morning that he would be nervous facing the Sixers for the first time.
About 40 minutes before the game, after already singing a plethora of autographs and posing for pictures and participating in an impromptu half-court shooting contest, Noel acknowledged that he had some jitters.
"I feel good man," he said at that time. "I'm a little nervous, but a lot more excitement."
Noel finished with nine points on 4-for-7 shooting to go with five rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block in 18 minutes, 35 seconds. He did not play in the fourth quarter of the blowout.
Anderson went postal on his former team. He scored a career-high tying 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting. He also had eight rebounds. But he only had nice things to say about his former squad.
"It was the place that kind of raised me," the second-year swingman said. "It taught me what the NBA was. It was everything to me. Like I said it was all I knew. So when that's the case, you take everything to heart.
"So that I'm somewhere else, you kind of take what you learned there and you pick up a lot of new things."
Richaun Holmes started in place of Jahlil Okafor at center, because he was a better matchup against Mavs center Dirk Nowitzki. It proved to be a solid decision. Holmes scored six of the Sixers' first eight points en route to his 17 points and two steals. Robert Covington had 18 points and nine rebounds.
But this night a lot of attention went to Noel and his return to Philadelphia.
The New Orleans Pelicans selected Noel sixth overall in the 2013 draft and traded him to the Sixers. Brett Brown said seeing him Friday night in another uniform was kind of awkward.
"He certainly was a team favorite and I think a fan favorite," Brown said. "Now to see him in a different uniform, we wish him well. He is in a better place and he can progress his future and I suppose just his family's future is better than he was able to do here and we wish him well."
Noel will become a restricted free agent this summer. The Mavs are expected to sign him to a lucrative contract and make him their starting center. The Sixers weren't going to do either.
That's part of the reason why they traded him. The Sixers wanted to get something in return instead of letting him just walk away in free agency.
