DENVER — Nerlens Noel sat out of Wednesday’s game against the Nuggets with a right knee contusion.
“It’s a little bruised,” Noel said following the game. “It had me limping a little bit. It was hurting too much to really play.”
Noel explained he suffered the injury when he banged his knee on the court while committing a foul against the Celtics on Sunday. He said his knee “didn’t hurt that much when it happened,” but it bothered him in Monday’s loss to the Pacers. He played 25 minutes (nine points, eight rebounds) in the second night of a back-to-back.
“I felt a lot of discomfort,” Noel said of the Pacers game. “Then it got a little worse. [I am] just giving it some rest.”
Noel recently missed two games after bruising the same knee. He said he aims to play in the Sixers' next game, Saturday against the Trail Blazers, but Brett Brown did not speculate on when Noel will return.
“I don’t know when we’re going to see him,” Brown said. “I don’t have any comment much more than that until we learn more from our medical staff.”
Noel said he plans to rest his knee on Thursday. In the meantime, he had to watch the Sixers’ last-second loss to the Nuggets from the sidelines (see Instant Replay).
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“It was real tough,” he said. “I saw a lot of things I could have helped out with, especially on the defensive end of them not even being a good shooting team. I think that would have really put some restriction on the paint. I think the guys did great and held it down. They got into a position where they could have won the game.”