| Thanks to vacation travel and the like, I've
fallen a bit behind on my reporting. Let's
correct that now with a quick look at each of the three games, and then a look at each
player during that time.
December
29, 2003
Duke 88 - Davidson 54
Box Score
Davidson: Duke's
long-time traditional foe gave the Blue Devils a tough time in last year's opener, and a
number of the same players were back. The toughest was sweet-shooting Briton Ian Johnson,
the player with a feathery hook shot. Duke
started the game on an 11-2 run, with Shelden Williams scoring on a fast break dunk, Dan
Ewing finding Shav Randolph for a dunk in the halfcourt, and a Chris Duhon steal leading
to a Ewing basket. The tenacious Wildcats
fought back and closed to within 14-13 with twelve minutes to go in the half. Right around that time, a Davidson player was
trying to inbound the ball and was about to violate the 5 second count. So he whipped the ball off Duhon's chest to
restart the count and did it perhaps a bit harder than he needed to, and a bit too close
to his head for comfort. No real damage was
intended, but it certainly served to fire up the team.
When Sean Dockery forced a turnover in front
of the Duke bench, Coach K was so excited he ran over to him and started yelling like he
was a teammate. That triggered an 8-2 run
that started with Luol Deng hitting a 17' baseline jumper.
Soon after that came the highlight of the season: Duhon stole the ball and
ran the court, whipping the ball behind him at the last second to Deng, who took off and
slammed it over Davidson guard Brendan Winters for a three point play. Deng absolutely posterized him in the best bit of
payback possible. Davidson actually closed
within 25-19 after that play, but the pumped-up Devils went on a half-ending 14-3 run to
take command of the game. Duke's defense was
smothering as they found a variety of ways to score.
Williams scored on a drop-step, Deng had another three point play, JJ hit
some freebies, Ewing hit a three, and Deng had a steal and breakaway dunk. The best play was when Duhon drove and tossed up
what looked like an awkward layup attempt to the left of the basket. In fact, Deng had signaled that he was going to go
up and that Duhon should throw him a lob. With
Williams setting a perfect backscreen, Deng grabbed the ball out of the air and threw it
down.
Duke continued the run they started in the
second half, turning a 34-22 game into a 58-22 laugher.
Duhon was driving, but JJ Redick was swishing threes. He hit one three, stole a pass and was driving
downcourt. Two Davidson players were ahead
of him, and they slid down to the basket to stop the drive.
Obviously, they forgot who Redick was, because he simply pulled up from the
three point arc and nailed the open three. That
was the moment that you knew Davidson was dead in this game. JJ started taking more and more ridiculous shots,
including a 30' three that swished. The rest of the game was a formality, though Duke
continued to play at a high level. The Devils
forced 22 turnovers and blocked 11 shots.
January
3, 2004
Duke 73 - Clemson 54
Box Score
Clemson: Any
road ACC game must be taken seriously, even for a struggling team like Clemson. In fact, their victory at home over a decent
Boston College squad opened some eyes. Also,
some very good Duke teams have struggled in Littlejohn, with some recent wins there taking
a good deal of effort. Thankfully, Duke came
out and played their usually smothering brand of defense and blew out to a 19-6 lead. Deng and Williams led the early charge, with
Shelden passing to Shav Randolph for a dunk, Luol driving & hitting a 17' jumper, and
Shelden scoring on a turnaround. Dan Ewing
came in off the bench and dished to JJ for three, got a tip-in and hit a couple of free
throws.
Clemson
stuck around in the first half by hitting the free throw line, getting 10 of their 29
first half points for free. They went on a
9-3 run that was broken up by a Redick three and Ewing steal & runout. The Tigers pulled within 10 points with six
minutes left, but 6 straight points from Duke (including a Dockery steal & runout)
gave Duke a comfortable lead. The Devils couldn't put the Tigers away, however, as Clemson
outscored Duke 10-7 down the stretch to stay within striking range. The fouls were starting to mount for Duke, as both
Williams and Ewing picked up 3 fouls, while Randolph and Duhon had 2 apiece. Nick Horvath and Lee Melchionni got some early
minutes as a result.
Duke scored the first 4 points of the second
half, with the play of the game coming when Williams outletted the ball after a rebound to
Duhon, who then found Redick in stride for the layup.
A Deng three with fifteen minutes left put Duke up 51-33, and while Clemson
kept trying, they could never go on a sustained run.
The closest they got was 53-40 with under thirteen minutes left, but threes
from Ewing (2) and Redick pushed the lead to 62-42. Duke
started running clock with eight minutes left and very efficiently
managed to get scores from Williams and Duhon working out of 2-3 motion. This game wasn't a thing of beauty, but Duke got
the job done on the road.
January 6, 2003
Duke 99 - Fairfield 58
Box Score
Fairfield: The Stags had the best athletes of
Duke's three foes in this period and a legitimate star scorer in Deng Gai, Luol's cousin. He had 12 of Fairfield's first 23 points but
finished with just 6 more. The game was
nip-and-tuck early on, with Fairfield holding 4 early leads, the last of which was 11-10
with under fifteen minutes to go. Duhon and
Deng hit back to back threes, but Fairfield crept to within 16-15 and was still within
22-19 with under ten minutes to go. It wasn't
poor play by Duke that kept them in it, but rather good play by Fairfield. They were getting a few open looks and playing
solid defense.
Finally,
a driving three point play by Duhon seemed to spark Duke.
The Devils started clamping down on every possession and worked even harder
on the offensive boards. Randolph had a
stickback and a Dockery rebound led to JJ nailing a three.
Duhon then sparked a run that gave Duke a lot of seperation. Deng inbounded the ball, passed to Duhon outside
the arc, and then received a whipcrack pass back from Duhon for an easy score. Chris then passed to Luol for three, and then got
a steal and runout three point play. That put
Duke up 40-21 with five minutes to go in the half. Fairfield staged one last challenge,
pulling to within 42-28, but a bunch of free throws and a Duhon baseline jumper gave Duke
a very comfortable 50-31 halftime lead.
After
a few early sluggish minutes, Duke put together a run that turned out the lights. Ewing had a steal & runout and Deng had a
three. Deng then got the ball in the low
post, passed the ball to Ewing in the high post, and he then dished to Williams for a
dunk. Duhon then ran off three straight
highlight reel plays. First came a three on a
Williams relocation pass. Then came an open
court dunk on a Redick feed. Then he ran the
floor and whipped off this indescribable wrap-around pass to Shelden for a transition
dunk. That put Duke up 69-38 with ten minutes
left. The reserves started trickling in, with
four of them on the floor by game's end. Duke
systematically took away Fairfield's every option and forced 25 turnovers.
Overall: Duke is playing with incredible
defensive intensity but also a large amount of patience.
They aren't the sort of team that gets anxious when they don't automatically
blow out to a 20 point lead, but instead continue to work hard and systematically take
away every offensive threat, often one at a time. This
is thanks mostly to ever-improving help defense that cuts off penetration and contests
every jumper. Duke is still sometimes a step
slow in transition which is a definite concern and has yet to face the combo of a
penetrating point guard along with a tremendous inside game, but the tools are in place to
stop them. No one on this team is playing
dominant individual basketball at the moment, at least not for entire games. However, everyone has had stretches were they were
unstoppable for a few minutes, and their teammates made sure to get them the ball. In this three game stretch, five of the
"seven starters" were in double digits, and a sixth (Randolph) was at 9.3 ppg. Five of the seven averaged at least 3 rebounds a
game. Four averaged 2 or more assists a game,
and three had 2 or more steals a game. Slowly
but surely, the disorganized bunch of the early season is becoming a team.
There
are some concerns. Rebounding is good but not
as good as it needs to be. A big reason why
has been consistent foul trouble. This is not
the quickest Duke team around, so when they don't move their feet, they can't recover
defensively using sheer quickness the way they used to.
The team is susceptible to offensive droughts because there is no single
dominant scorer who can get you a bucket no matter what.
The team is sometimes impatient at the offensive end and could be more
physical. Ewing and Redick continue to figure out how to best complement each other; their
respective injuries hurt team continuity a lot. Bottom
line: Duke is still learning, but they've already mastered some important lessons.
Player-by-Player:
**
Williams: Shelden didn't exactly
dominate offensively in any of these games, with his best stretch in the second half
against Davidson. Still, he averaged nearly 4
blocks per game, along with 10 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 2 apg and 1 spg. The assists are a welcome figure. When double-teamed against Fairfield, he did a
very nice job of relocating the ball. Shelden's
defense, rebounding and shot-blocking remain a constant, but he must guard against foul
trouble. He was one of the hardest-hit during
this period. Williams has gotten to the point where he is altering entire offenses,
because guards are now avoiding even going near him.
Most teams react to his presence either by double-teaming him or going zone
to take him out of the offense. It'll be nice
to see him go up against the likes of Eric Williams, Sean May and Jamar Smith one-on-one.
**
Randolph: Shav is quietly playing some
very good ball. During this three game
stretch he scored 9.3 ppg and had 6 rpg, 1.5 apg and 2.1 spg. Against Fairfield, he took
over for a foul-plagued Williams and did a fine job, down low, leading the team in
rebounds and getting Gai in foul trouble. He
still doesn't look completely comfortable on the court with his new body yet and can still
be pushed out of the way, but there's no question that he's finding ways to contribute. He got to the foul line an average of 5 times a
game, had a few dunks, some stickbacks and a few post-ups.
The one thing he needs to do is go to the basket stronger. There are times
when his layup attempts are weak and easily blocked, or just roll off the basket. He's meshing well with Williams and Deng in
particular, who seems to excel in feeding him from the high post for easy scores. It helps that Shav moves well without the ball.
** Deng:
Luol averaged 15 ppg, 3 rpg, 1 apg and 1 spg during this stretch, making
himself known as both a shooter and finisher. He
had a pretty quiet game against Clemson, missing a bunch of shots, but he dominated
Fairfield and Davidson with a variety of dunks (against Davidson) and threes (3 against
Fairfield). His game is rather unorthodox and
as such it's difficult to predict what he'll do. Most
opponents are still playing him for the shot, though he does turn it over some when he
drives. Lu misses an occasional defensive
assignment, but more often than not he just blankets his man and will send back a few
shots as well. Deng has yet to really
dominate an opponent from start to finish. He's
clearly deferring a bit to his older teammates, something that will need to stop when Duke
faces big time opponents. He's the only Blue
Devil with the potential to dominate games, and he needs to grow into that potential.
** Redick: That Texas game snapped JJ out of his shooting
slump and he's been raining down threes every since.
For a Duke team that is sometimes deliberate in its scoring, a couple of JJ
threes can give his team a nearly insurmountable lead.
He was 11-24 from three during this stretch, fueling his team-leading 16.3
ppg. Redick is doing a lot more than that,
getting 3.1 rpg, 1 apg and 1 spg. Coach K has
spoken about how pleased he is with his defensive effort as well. JJ was a little less successful driving to the
basket in these games, but when your three is falling the way it was for him, who cares? Oh yeah, JJ is up to 48 straight made free throws. A favorite highlight was JJ driving, dishing to
Ewing in the right corner, and then throwing up his arms to signal three as Dan was taking
the shot. If those two can develop a smooth
on-court synergy, Duke will be able to put up some points.
** Duhon: Chris was the best player on the team during these
games. He averaged 11.3 ppg on 16-27
shooting, including 4-10 from three. Duhon
also averaged 4 rpg, 7.2 apg and an absurd 4 spg. Less
quantifiably, Chris is playing with a tremendous amount of confidence, almost a swagger.
He's driving to the basket with a purpose, setting up easy scores in transition and in the
halfcourt, and seems comfortable with being the team leader in a way that he didn't last
year. Things just started to fall into place
all of a sudden for him, and now coach K is challenging him to become even more of a
scorer. Defensively, he is at freshman-year
levels in terms of risk-taking and efficacy, especially with the Deng-Williams-Randolph
frontcourt playing such excellent help defense. Chris is excelling both on the ball and
off the ball, and as such is sparking his team's offense by generating easy baskets by
forcing turnovers. He has a number of big
challenges at point guard coming up soon, but one senses that he's ready for them. Chris passed the career 1,000 point mark against
Fairfield, and is now #49 all-time with 1015 points, just ahead of Tony Lang.
** Ewing: Dan's foot has almost completely healed, and one
can see the difference in his game. He's
regained most of his quickness and lateral speed, though he isn't quite exploding to the
basket the way he used to just yet. After
struggling against Davidson, he broke out against Clemson with 19 points and chipped in
with 10 against Fairfield. Overall, he
averaged 11.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2 apg and 1.5 spg. He
looks comfortable starting or coming off the bench. One
senses that the best is yet to come for him; he has yet to resemble the player who was ACC
tourney MVP last year.
** Dockery:
Sean's numbers were modest: 4.7 ppg, 1 rpg, 3 apg, 2 spg. However, he had just 1 turnover
in the three games, was a terror on defense and generally gave his team a different look. He's starting to hit some of his threes as well. Sean may still get a chance to start some games
down the line, depending on the opponent. He's
the team's best on-ball perimeter defender, though he must be careful with his fouling.
Dock is the master at forcing 5 second calls.
** Horvath: Nick got some solid minutes, piling up 7 rebounds
and even scoring 6 points against Fairfield. He
is fine foul insurance though unlikely to crack the regular rotation.
**
Melchionni: Lee was the one player
auditioning for more regular playing time, and he did quite well. He had 6 against Davidson and 2 vs Fairfield, but
more importantly he played pretty good defense and played hard the whole time. It was clear that he took his playing time
seriously.
** The Walk-ons: Pat Johnson looked great against Fairfield,
pulling down a couple of rebounds and scoring inside.
Andy Borman also looked smooth in
running the team. Joe Pagliuca got his first
taste of action in a Duke uniform after joining the team a bit late as a walk-on, while
Patrick Davidson seemed reluctant to shoot.
Rob's Archive
|
