SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Nerlens Noel looked deflated after the Sixers’ 84-77 preseason loss to the Knicks at the Carrier Dome.
While the defeat had Noel down, his individual performance should help lift him back up.
Noel filled out the stat sheet in the loss, notching a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. He also had four steals, three assists and a blocked shot (see Instant Replay).
The 6-foot-10 rookie is feeling a little more comfortable each time he takes the court.
“I just want to fine tune things,” Noel said. “I want to lessen the turnovers and take good shots and make sure I am finding my teammates in the right spots.”
Noel turned the ball over four times, but he needed only five field goal attempts to score his 12 points. He was 3 for 5 from the field.
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Sixers head coach Brett Brown also sees Noel’s progress.
“You just see a little bit more each time you play,” Brown said. “To me, he is finding his way. He wants to learn and he is instinctive and curious. He is inquisitive about things and wants to figure it all out, but he does some things that are very special athletically.”
With Noel as the anchor, the Sixers are developing a defensive identity.
“It starts on defense,” Noel said. “We take a lot of pride in our defense. We can get a lot of offense off our defense, hedging plays, getting in passing lanes and getting fastbreaks. That will really get us going.”
Transition defense was the No. 1 focus during training camp and it’s showing. The Sixers outscored the Knicks 27-2 in fastbreak points on Tuesday night.
“I thought our defense was good,” Brown said. “We held a veteran team to 84 points. We just couldn’t score. That really is a big part of the sport. But I will take it that way any day of the week where our defense is good and solid.
“We are a defensive team that has to find ways to score and tonight we were 2 for 18 [from three-point range], but we got to the line 36 times. We had far too many turnovers, but that is who we are.”
The Sixers and Knicks each turned the ball over 21 times.
The Sixers suffered in the loss from a slow start (outscored 23-11 in the first quarter) and their bench (reserves outscored 43-23 for the game).
Carmelo Anthony led New York in scoring and rebounding with 17 points and seven rebounds.
The Sixers had four starters score in double figures led by Noel and Tony Wroten with 12 apiece.
The Sixers return to preseason action on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center against the Boston Celtics.