The Sixers' run of summer league dominance came to an end with Monday night's 86-77 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Las Vegas. The Sixers had previously won five straight games between the Orlando Pro Summer League and the Las Vegas Summer League.
Down by as many as 21 points, the Sixers made a run in the second half before eventually taking the loss. Their record in the Las Vegas Summer League now stands at 1-1.
Nerlens Noel was solid in his Sin City debut. After sitting out the Sixers' Vegas opener, Noel had 12 points, six rebounds, four blocks and two steals against the Cavs. The big man did roll his left ankle late in the fourth quarter but he was able to return to the game after a brief break.
“I’d give it a ‘C’,” Noel said via the Sixers' website when asked to grade his performance. “I just felt I wasn’t active enough, and I felt my energy was a little down.”
"He's active. He's all over the place," assistant coach Chad Iske said. "He's trying to do everything, he's trying to do too much on both ends. The hard part is do you want to settle him down or do you want him just to play with that aggressiveness? I don't want to try to give him too much and cloud him and then he's thinking instead of just playing.
"I think we just got to continue to get out there and find the happy balance between him being within our rules and him being himself."
Jordan McRae paced the Sixers with 18 points. Brandon Davies added 10 points along with a pair of rebounds and three steals.
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Matthew Dellavedova scored a game-high 19 points for the Cavs on just 6 of 9 shooting.
Last month's No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Andrew Wiggins, registered 10 points and three rebounds. Meanwhile, 2013 top selection Anthony Bennett put up 14 points and four boards.
The Sixers scored just 11 points in the first quarter but managed to hang around by holding the Cavs to 15 in the frame. The Sixers increased their output to 18 points in the second quarter. However, they allowed the Cavs to score 33 points and ended up taking a 19-point deficit into halftime that they would never fully overcome.
The Sixers return to action at 8 p.m. on Tuesday against the Phoenix Suns.