|
December 20, 2003. Madison Square Garden.
Box Score
| Game Log
Duke's big win over Texas was similar to their triumph
over Michigan State in that Duke probably wasn't as good as they looked in
this game, nor was Texas as bad. What is remarkable is that the Longhorns
had some definite weaknesses that Duke homed in on and exploited. Like MSU,
Texas didn't have a true point guard, though they did have a lot depth. What
cooked the Horns was not point guard play (in fact, they had just 10
turnovers), but rather that Duke completely shut down their post play and
ransacked their defense. The Devils out-toughed one of Rick Barnes'
rough-and-tumble outfits, showing that Texas needs to get a whole lot
tougher to compete with the best teams in the land.
Another remarkable thing about the game was the way
Coach K managed his players who were in foul trouble. Texas threw five
different post players at Duke and got Shavlik Randolph, Shelden Williams
and Luol Deng in foul trouble. Coach K cleverly shuffled them in and out of
the game when the fouls started to mount, and milked the clock proficiently
with twelve minutes to go. The fact that Texas was now settling almost
exclusively for jump shots by that point helped keep Duke's bigs in the
game, and they responded by dominating the backboards down the stretch.
Amazingly, the Devils outrebounded Texas 43-34, despite giving up 21
offensive rebounds.
Despite this being Duke's third game in a week, the
players looked loose and energized rather than tired. The players all noted
that they seemed to be in better shape than Texas' team. The players in the
seven man rotation look more and more interchangeable with each passing
game, giving Duke a balanced attack that is difficult to defend. Six
different players were in double figures for Duke, though the star of the
day was clearly Chris Duhon. After a subpar first half against Princeton on
Wednesday night, he's picked up his intensity level. His daring drives,
pinpoint passes and fierce defense gave his teammates a figure to rally
around. Despite this being the Year of the Point Guard in the ACC, Duhon has
proven to be as indispensible to his team as anyone in the league.
It definitely helped that Duke set a tone early in the
game that they were not going to be pushed around. Duhon's three thirty
seconds into the game seemed to put an extra bounce in his step, because he
hasn't been hitting that shot lately. Texas senior James Thomas missed a
layup, a tip-in and 2 free throws early in the game, and was then yanked by
Barnes for the rest of the contest. Barnes went with his best practice
performers as Thomas has not played well lately, but Texas taking away their
most physical player certainly didn't hurt Duke's cause. Meanwhile, Duke was
going inside for their scores, with Randolph and Williams both getting
stickbacks. Four minutes into the game, Duke led 8-0 as Texas missed 8
shots.
The game went back and forth for a few minutes as the
Longhorns got on the board, but Duke kept up with them. Texas scores were
met by a Williams hook shot and a Deng three, both on Duhon passes. Deng
looked like the best player on the floor for several minutes as he hit
Randolph in a high-low, and then drove right, twisting his body around for a
layup around his defender. Sean Dockery got into the act with a drive opened
up by a wicked crossover. After Texas missed a couple of cracks at the
basket, Duhon gave up his body on a strong drive tha the finished. With ten
minutes to go in the half, Duke led 22-9.
The Devils kept up the pressure. JJ Redick got on the
board with a couple of free throws, and then hit a 19' baseline jumper (his
foot was on the line). Duhon had yet another assist, this time to Shelden
inside. Duke was alternating between scoring off the dribble, scoring in the
post and hitting jumpers created by dribble penetration. Texas finally got
their act together, going on a 7-2 run that cut the lead to 30-18. Only a
Ewing 15' jumper blunted the run a bit. Deng responded by getting fouled on
a drive, and Duhon then stole the ball on the next possession, feeding it to
Ewing. Dan was fouled and hit both freebies to make it 34-18 with six
minutes to go.
Every time Texas would make a positive play, Duke
would do something to deflate them. After Texas moved within 34-20, they
forced a stop and had a chance to start thinking about cutting the lead to
10 at the half. Instead, Dockery forced a steal and got an easy layup. A
Brian Boddicker three was matched by Deng finding Shav inside for an easy
dunk. When Duhon stole the ball on Texas' next possession and fed it to Deng
for a dunk, one could sense that there would be no comeback for the
Longhorns. Drives by Deng and Dockery put Duke up 46-27 with about 30
seconds left in the half. Coach K went to his bench with Nick Horvath, but
Nick fouled Brad Buckman with 11 seconds left, and he made both freebies.
Duhon responded by knifing through the defense and scoring on a tough drive
with 2 seconds left, giving Duke a huge 48-29 lead. The Devils shot over 60%
in the half, forced 9 turnovers, committed just 5 of their own and had 19
rebounds.
The first four minutes of the second half are usually
a key time in a game. Texas was going to try to cut the lead down to ten
once again, but instead Redick opened up the half by nailing a long trey.
Royal Ivey, who had a pretty good game for the Horns, hit a jumper, but
Redick matched him with 2 free throws and another three off a Duhon pass.
Duke had crossed the magical 20 point line and lingered there. Over the next
four minutes, Texas would miss 7 of their 8 shots and Duke would deliver a
knockout punch, courtesy of Williams & Duhon. Shelden hit a free throw,
knocked down a turnaround jumper in the lane on a Deng feed and scored in
transition on a spot-on Duhon pass. Chris capped the run with yet another
drive, putting Duke up 63-35 with fourteen minutes to go.
Texas finally showed some heart and responded with an
8-2 run that included back-to-back threes. Duke was conceding some of those
jumpers to the Longhorns, and they were finally hitting them. Then came a
bizarre sequence where Brandon Mouton fouled Sean Dockery (the 7th team
foul) and then earned a technical thanks to him saying something pleasant to
JJ Redick. This was a killer because the tech gave Duke possession, which
meant that Dock would have no one else on the line with him. He hit both, JJ
hit both tech shots, and the comeback, such as it was, was squelched. Mouton
did come back with a three but was not heard from the rest of the game.
It was around this time, with a 23 point lead, that
Duke started to run some clock. Texas was starting to warm up a bit from
outside, and Duke didn't want to give them any extra possessions. Duke
missed their first few shots running 2-3 motion but did run the clock down
to under ten minutes. It paid off with a rebound of a Williams missed free
throw, who was fouled again and hit both this time. After a Williams block,
Dockery took it all the way for a quick score to make it 73-46. Texas went
on an 8-4 run, but Duke just bled the clock, frustrating the Longhorns. On
one possession, Duke was able to run off a minute and a half thanks to
offensive rebounds on 2 misses, and Duhon finished things off with a drive
to make it 78-54.
After that, Duke opened things up again, with Redick
finding his shooting stroke again with a couple of threes, Duhon hitting
Randolph down low, and Lee Melchionni stroking a trey. Texas was outshot,
outrebounded and out-toughed. The Devils actually managed to hit 44% of
their threes and 57% overall. Duke is still not quite a polished gem as of
yet, but one can really see them relying on a game plan and learning to win
with it. For a program built around stars, it's a bit odd to see them
winning without a dominant player. Luckily, what that's meant so far is
simply that different players have stepped up at different times in the
game. Luol Deng was practically invisible in the second half but dominant in
the first. JJ Redick owned the game in the second half. The lynchpin was
Duhon, who was doing a little bit of everything for his team and keeping
them on an even keel.
** Negatives:
1. Blocking out. Duke did give up way too many
offensive rebounds, though they did recover enough to play good defense
after Texas secured the board. Still, it was known that Texas would send
five guys to the boards, which meant that Duke got some extra fast break
opportunities. You can't stop everything, and Duke did a decent job in
minimizing how much this hurt them.
2. Foul shooting. This is still a concern, especially
since everyone on the team has pretty good form. That goes double for
Shelden & Shav, who were just a combined 6-14. With Shelden, one senses that
he rushes his shots just a bit.
** Positives:
1. Balance. Six players scored between 10 and 20
points. Every starter had at least 3 rebound. The top seven took between 4
and 10 shots apiece. Every starter but Duhon (oddly enough) had at least one
trip to the foul line. Five different players came up with steals. Every
time a defense concentrates on shutting down one player, another emerges.
2. Toughness. Duke didn't seem to be the least bit
bothered about playing such a physical game. When Buckman took out Shelden
Williams, he calmly got up and went to the foul line. Randolph often
outworked three guys to get rebounds. Duhon gave up his body again and
again. The team is really learning how to take away everything the other
team wants to do.
3. Game management. This Duke team has really taken to
Coach K's tutelage, attacking when it's appropriate and milking the clock
well when the time was right. Some Duke teams did not play well in 2-3
motion because they were accustomed to going full speed all the time. This
Duke squad can play at a number of different speeds.
Player-by-Player:
**
Williams: Shelden overcame foul trouble and
missed free throws to play a great game against a huge front line. His 5
offensive boards were key, especially an early one that led to a stickback.
Shelden trusts that Duhon will get him the ball when he gets open and he's
constantly on the lookout for Chris' high-velocity passes. He caught a
couple of those bullets and converted them. Williams' touch continues to
improve, as his little turnaround jumper showed. The deeper he got in the
game, the more aggressive he got on defense, with one of his blocks leading
directly to a Dockery basket. No Duke player had what I would call a
dominant game (expect perhaps Duhon), but everyone came up big when their
number was called.
**
Randolph: After a disappointing showing
against Princeton, Shav played like a man against men. Like Williams, his
early stickback set the tone for the rest of his game, as he showed that he
wasn't backing down. Once again, he and Deng communicated well as Luol found
him twice in the low post for easy baskets. He had 6 early rebounds and 4
late ones, and they were all important in squelching Texas' comeback
attempts. He managed to stay aggressive even with foul trouble. At some
point, it would be nice to see a huge breakout game for Shav against a
big-time foe, but simply seeing him being a big factor against a good team
is great. One must walk before one can run.
** Deng: Despite Luol's immense talent, there
are times when he plays like a freshman. What I mean by that is that he
tends to disappear at times, force shots or passes, or instead pass up shots
that he should take. This is all normal, and I expect him to continue to
grow as the year goes on. That said, his first half was unbelievable. Texas
had absolutely no idea what to do with him. He hit a three, drove and then
posted up for a twisting layup, took his man off the dribble with a Grant
Hill-like drive, finished a Duhon long look with a dunk, had 2 assists to
Randolph inside, picked off a pass and grabbed a couple of rebounds. His
second half foul trouble meant that he was a bit more reluctant to be
aggressive, but his teammates picked up his slack even as Texas made sure
someone kept an eye on "Louie", as Coach K calls him, at all times.
**
Redick: Texas kept an eye on JJ throughout the
first half, and so he only got 3 shots off, hitting a long two. He still
found other ways to contribute, going hard to the boards (getting 4 in the
first half alone) and playing strong defense. In the second half, he just
started to feel it and started bombing away from 25 feet+. Happily, he also
had some chances to convert at the foul line. While his late threes weren't
all that important to the outcome of the game, they may well contribute to a
newfound confidence in his shooting stroke. A few days rest for his ankle
and thoughts of long-range bombs dropping at MSG should cheer him
considerably. His only negative in the game were a couple of bad decisions
with the ball when he found himself pinned. While his shooting slump has
been unpleasant, it's forced him to work on other aspects of his game,
especially defense and rebounding.
**
Duhon: There are those who have said that this
was the best game of his career, and while in some sense they are right, I
want to make clear that this wasn't a fluke. Rather, it's the next step in
his basketball journey, a continuation of his maturation process as a
leader. In the simplest terms, Chris is leading and everyone else is
following--and everyone is playing this role to the fullest. Chris is
walking and talking like a leader, and his teammates are eager to be led,
knowing that Chris is ready to make them all look good. The one key in all
this was Duhon figuring out a way to make himself look good by way of
scoring the ball. At times, a certain laziness crept into his approach on
offense, taking either too many ill-advised shots or not going strong enough
to the hoop. In this game, he used his quickness and wiry strength to turn
the corner repeatedly on Texas' guards and go all the way. That made them
respect him enough to allow him to set up his teammates for easy scores. He
set up Shelden, JJ, Luol, Dan & Shav for scores, with Shelden & JJ being
favorite targets. As long as Chris continues to play with this kind of
focus, especially in the big games, this team has a chance to do some
special things.
**
Ewing: Dan actually had a pretty decent first
half, hitting an important jumper and some free throws. He then struggled in
the second half, though he did continue to play hard defensively, even
winding up with a block from behind on a much bigger player. It's clear that
he's playing with pain, and having 9 days off can only help him. Because of
his ability to get his own shot, drive to the basket, finish lob passes, hit
free throws and long-range jumpers, he is a key part of Duke's offense. When
he gets hot, he's really tough to stop, but taking away his quickness has
hurt his overall game on the offensive end. Still, he's not one to whine and
hasn't stopped working hard.
**
Dockery: With the exception of an offensive
foul, Sean graded out at near-perfect levels in this game. Combining his
playground skills with a better understanding of how to mesh with his
teammates, he continues to contribute significantly. Quicker than anyone
else on the team, he's deadly in the open court. He's using his crossover to
open up driving lanes and has slowed down his release enough so that his
floater is now falling softly into the basket. I also loved seeing him step
up and knock down free throws in a situation where Duke had their foot on
Texas' metaphorical throat--he made sure they didn't let up. Combine that
with a steal & runout and another full court excursion after a Williams
block, and you had a guy who made the other team pay for their mistakes.
Just a beautiful game.
**
Horvath:: K was quite comfortable in using
Nick in certain situations, though he admittedly didn't do very well at the
end of the first half, sending a Texas player to the line after fouling him.
If one of Duke's bigs had fouled out, Nick would have come in.
**
Melchionni: Very productive 2 minutes out
there, hitting a three and grabbing a board. I am hopeful that he will be
able to work his way into the rotation at some point, if his defense picks
up.
** Borman:
Threw a great pass to Melch in the corner for a three.
** Davidson: Coughed up the ball under
pressure.
** Johnson: Had the last rebound of the game.
Rob's Archive
|
