LOS ANGELES -- Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor are the franchise cornerstones the Sixers are relying on to eventually get them out of basketball purgatory.
As talented as the big men are offensively, Saturday night showed they still have a long way to go defensively.
Clippers center DeAndre Jordan toyed with Okafor, Noel and the rest of the Sixers’ big men, scoring a season-high 22 points and throwing down nine dunks in only three quarters of play in the Clippers’ 130-99 win (see Instant Replay).
“We have to do a better job,” Noel said. “We have to retreat and help on the weak side and get a bump. Overall it was a bad defensive game for the whole team.”
It wasn’t just Jordan that had success down low. Clippers backup center Cole Aldrich shot 4 of 6 and power forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was 3 of 4 from the field. The Clippers finished with 48 points in the paint on 24 of 36 shooting, and that came with their lone All-Star in frontcourt, Blake Griffin, out with a quad injury.
Okafor had only two defensive rebounds in 18 minutes and Noel had five, the same number as Clippers point guard Chris Paul.
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“We’re better than we showed tonight,” Okafor said. “No excuses, we have to come out better.”
Noel started at center and Okafor came off the bench as his backup, the same arrangement as the previous four games.
They played on the floor together briefly for the first eight minutes of the third quarter, during which time the Sixers’ deficit ballooned from 69-52 to 92-66.
Three of Jordan’s dunks came in the eight minutes Okafor and Noel were together down low.
“You’re always trying to talk about communication with pick and rolls,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “If those two big men have a chance to play together at all it’s going to be about space. That’s what comes to my mind (as the problem)."
There were other defensive issues beyond Noel and Okafor. The perimeter defense was lacking as the Clippers made 12 of 23 from 3-point range, and guards Austin Rivers, Paul and J.J. Redick combined for 57 points.
Still, it was the defensive shortcomings of Okafor and Noel down low that were most concerning. For Jordan to throw down nine dunks and the Clippers' guards to drive into the paint so easily reiterated that for all of the duo’s talent, they still have a ways to go.
“We have to do a better job of sticking to the task,” Noel said. “We’ll learn and rebound from this.”
Offensively, they were fine. Okafor scored 23 points on 10 of 14 shooting and Noel had 13 points on 6 of 9 shooting.
But when it came down to it, their struggles on the defensive end overshadowed their contributions on offense.
“We’re disappointed with the margin tonight,” Brown said. “Some of it you just have to shake the Clippers’ hands, but we definitely had some miscues on defense we have to fix. It’s part of our whole life with our young team.”