76ers' Nerlens Noel: Thrives in move back to bench Monday

Noel came off the bench and provided 12 points (5-5 FG, 2-4 FT), three rebounds, three steals, two assists and one block across 25 minutes in a 122-119 win over the Kings on Monday.

Analysis:

The 76ers' big men struggled to contain the Kings' DeMarcus Cousins (46 points), but Noel was solid from a statistical standpoint, despite moving to the bench even with Joel Embiid (knee) out. After starting each of the last three games that Embiid sat out, Noel slotted in behind Jahlil Okafor, but still saw the larger portion of the timeshare, though only by three minutes. Embiid is scheduled to sit out games Wednesday against the Mavericks and Thursday against the Mavericks, so look for Okafor and Noel to roughly split the minutes for those contests as well.