Improvement from Noah

Joakim Noah also continued his aggressive, clever play with 14 points on seven of eight shooting and seven rebounds as Noah outplayed both Al Jefferson and Kevin Love and showed a deft move to the left and strong left hand to finish. It’s another addition to Noah’s game that strates how hard he did work this summer and how seriously he now is taking the game.

But Noah was impressive[...]

The numbers were perhaps a bit inflated given the defenders. But Noah’s floor game was impressive the way he hit cutters out of the high post. He ran the floor impressively, beating even quicker players down court and on two of his blocks he controlled the rebound instead of a Mutombo-like swat out of bounds for show, started the fast break and then finished with a tip in.

It was really good stuff, and the stuff we saw of Noah in college.

[...]

“It felt pretty good, but then I started the second half and I started to cramp up,” said Noah. “I've never cramped up before in my life. It did feel good to get that many minutes (34 with Miller and Thomas out). I really think I have to take what the game gives to me. I'm not sure (having) eight points and 12 rebounds is especially a bad game. But I also know there are high expectations. I do have to take what comes to me. I know it's a little bit cliché, but it's true.”