On Friday, the Sixers and Clippers will meet for the first time since Elton Brand defected back to the East Coast.

Brand still occasionally chats with Clippers assistants and keeps in contact "quite often" with former teammates Cuttino Mobley and Chris Kaman, but the forward hasn't reached out to Mike Dunleavy.

"There's nothing really to talk about," said Brand after 76ers practice Thursday.

"We had a great relationship the whole time he was here," Dunleavy said. "It's surprising, some things you can't figure out. I don't know why he left. All the e-mails we exchanged were positive. All of a sudden, it just fell off a cliff."