Duke falls to Miami for first ACC loss
Duke fell to Miami on Saturday, giving them their first loss in conference play.
DURHAM, N.C. — Duke dropped its first ACC game of the season Saturday in dramatic fashion, as a missed buzzer-beating 3-point attempt from freshman Trevor Keels gave Miami a 76-74 victory.
Keels’ missed shot initially appeared to be on line but veered to the right catching the rim, and bouncing to the floor as time expired. It was as good of a look as Duke could have hoped for with just .07 seconds to get a shot off.
As defining as the missed shot was, it was not the moment that cost the Blue Devils, nor was any other singular moment, but rather a collective string of mistakes that prevented the victory.
Just prior to the Keels miss, Wendell Moore Jr., also had a look at the bucket to give Duke the lead. Trailing by two — the final score — freshman AJ Griffin rebounded a missed free throw attempt from Isaiah Wong with just eight seconds remaining.
He got the ball in Moore’s hands, who pushed the ball up the court. The junior co-captain had room to get up the court quickly, and ultimately arrived just outside the Blue Devils’ 3-point line with four seconds left on the game clock when he pulled and took a shot for the game winner. Rather than pushing the ball a few more steps to get a closer look for the tie, Moore believed his higher percentage shot was right there in that moment.
It missed. Duke fortunately retained possession, which ultimately led to Keels’ missed shot at the buzzer.
While all of Cameron Indoor Stadium let out a collective sigh at Moore’s decision, in hindsight it was not necessarily the wrong choice. Yes he could have probably taken the ball a few steps deeper and gotten a higher percentage shot, but what he ultimately took was not a bad shot.
“So pushing the ball, you kind of want to get to the rack at that time,” Moore said. “But I had seen they had all five guys clogging the lane, so I felt I had an open three. I felt it was a good shot. I thought it was going in. To me it was on target. It was just a little long and hit the rim.
“At the same time we were able to get another possession. Trevor got another good look. Tonight was one of those nights. Shots weren’t falling. We didn’t make the big shots and they did make the big shots.”
It’s hard to argue his point, or his decision in the moment. He believed it was his best opportunity and took it with confidence.
Mike Krzyzewski often praises his players for taking confident shots. This was another instance where Duke’s head coach did not mind the attempt.
In fact, he didn’t blame the outcome on any part of that offensive possession, or the previous one where Keels was unable to finish in traffic at the hoop.
“I thought Wendell had a good shot,” Krzyzewski said. “I thought Trevor really took the ball hard and had a chance to maybe get a foul. And they executed really well — for the last play we had a chance to win the game but we did not.
“First of all, for Wendell you’ve got to go by feel. You know you’re down two. They’re condensed. Even when Trevor tried to take it, it was tough to go all the way. Someone said take it all the way. Well you couldn’t take it all the way. Was his look a makable look? Yes.
“I would rather talk about the other end,” he added. “If we do our job on the other end — and Trevor got a great look with .7 — you have a chance to win. I’m not blaming him. We had our chances is what I’m saying.”
Let’s talk about the other end, as Krzyzewski references. It was this where Duke ultimately saw the game slip away. After putting together a 6-0 run behind two incredible possessions — both defensively and offensively — from Paolo Banchero, Duke took a 74-71 lead with 45 seconds remaining.
In that moment, it felt as if the Blue Devils would escape and get the victory. Instead, Miami’s Charlie Moore put his team on his back, attacked the hoop and scored his 18th point of the game while also drawing a foul.
Moore missed the attempt. Banchero got his hand on the ball, but could not corral it. Instead, Miami’s Jordan Miller pulled down the offensive rebound, and got the ball to Kameron McGusty who knocked down a jumper to give the Hurricanes the 75-74 lead.
Just like that, Miami had put together four points on one sequence and erased the lead.
As big as that stretch was, though, Duke’s play throughout the game led to those moments. The Blue Devils turned the ball over 17 times, resulting in 17 Miami points. This was particularly an issue in the first half, though Duke was still able to go into the break tied.
“To me the story of the game was our turnovers,” Krzyzewski said. “We had 17 and 13 in the first half. To me it shows the rust that we have. I thought a key point of the game was when we were up 26-18 and we were playing well and we came down three or four straight times and turned the ball over.”
Moments such as the one Krzyzewski is referring to were all too common. That was the difference. Not the missed rebound off the free throw. Not the missed 3s at the end of the game.
It was Duke’s inability to protect the basketball.
Miami used its quickness, and active hands to keep Duke out of sync offensively. They made plays and they did it frequently. That said, it was not necessarily a swarming defense. The Blue Devils made as many mistakes as the Hurricanes made plays.
That’s the recipe to lose a basketball game.
“They definitely played a good game defensively, but at the same time we helped them out a lot,” Moore said. “A lot of our turnovers were unforced errors. Kind of lazy passes. Dribbling the ball off our legs. Dribbling into double teams. Just things that we know we really can’t do. It’s stuff we went over in the scouting report.”
Krzyzewski agrees that it was not all about Miami, but he was quick to point out that they made plays as well.
“The turnovers are a combination of some really good plays by them and some not so good plays by us. It’s not like every one of our turnovers were because we were bad, a number of them were because they were good.”
Offensively, Miami effective as well, particularly in the second half when they shot 56.7% from the floor — most of which came as a result of layups.
Miami converted 18 layups in the game, contributing to their eye-popping 52 points in the paint. Many of those were layups that were converted from turnovers. Others were layups that resulted from good spacing.
“We wanted to be able to kind of bluff when they drove and recover, but they have real good shooters as well, so it was kind of hard,” Paolo Banchero said. “You have to decide. So it was kind of hard for us. You either hugged up on your man or you over help. So credit to them, they spread us out the whole game and kept good spacing. And they made shots, made cuts.”
The points in the paint that were not a product of turnovers predominantly came from backdoor cuts. This has been an issue at times throughout the season, but no more than it was against the Hurricanes.
“I think part of it, points off turnovers give you points in the paint,” Krzyzewski said. “And they come into the game averaging 10 made 3s a game. We got backdoored too much, but if we don’t turn the ball over we hold them in the 60s and they’ve been averaging 90. The backdoors were the ones, because we didn’t want to contest. We’re not going to get steals, so we’re playing half a man below, and they still backdoored it. That shows tired, I think. And they executed well. They’re good.”
All in all, Duke had its opportunities. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils they were unable to clean up their mistakes enough to overcome Miami’s poise down the stretch.