Duke uses lockdown defense to rout Syracuse
Duke shutdown Syracuse with smothering defense and balanced offense.
DURHAM, N.C. — Duke rode a dominating defensive performance and an efficient offensive approach Saturday to rout Syracuse, 79-59.
The Blue Devils forced three consecutive Syracuse turnovers and converted them to eight quick points to start the game. And though Jim Boeheim’s team did climb to within one point with just over seven minutes to play in the opening half, the Blue Devils’ had already set the tone and pace of the game.
For that reason, the visitors were never able to build any kind of significant momentum to completely knock Duke off track. That said, there were moments during the first half in which Duke did grow stagnant on offense, turning the ball over eight times over a stretch of 8:39.
Duke scored just five points during the stretch compared to 11 from Syracuse. The Blue Devils were caught moving the ball around the horn frequently without feeding the high post or looking to pull defenders away from shooters.
Shot clock violations and one-shot possessions were the result. Duke’s defense also briefly suffered as a result, as they were unable to maintain its initial heavy ball pressure, which had Syracuse rattled.
“Basically the zone kind of gets you to stand up a little bit,” Wendell Moore Jr. said. “In that time segment where we committed a couple turnovers, I feel like that’s what we did.”
Those struggles lasted only momentarily.
Duke began flashing to the high post and moving the ball quickly. Consequently, the Orange’s zone was left to scatter the rest of the game. In response, Duke found open looks on the perimeter and frequent passing lanes to feed Mark Williams in the post.
Paolo Banchero was a key for Duke’s success against the zone, as he drew defenders consistently in the high post, leaving shooters open. Banchero made the correct reads and either hit the shooter on the first pass, or would swing it to get the defense moving again, opening up more looks.
As a result, the freshman big man had all four of his assists in the first half.
AJ Griffin was one of the recipients of Banchero’s ball movement, torching the nets early, hitting 4 of 6 from 3-point range in the first half. He concluded the game with five 3s, making him one of four Blue Devils to score 15 points.
While Griffin was hitting perimeter shots, Williams was dominating the paint, scoring nine points on 4 of 4 shooting in the first 20 minutes, ultimately finishing the day with 15 points on 6 of 7 shooting. He also added seven rebounds,
Once Duke refocused on offense, they pretty much did as they pleased against the Syracuse zone.
“We got back to moving the ball strong — strong kicks, strong pass fake, strong shots,” Moore said. “Really we got whatever we wanted.”
As bold as Moore’s statement is, he is not really wrong. Duke had a tremendously balanced offense, with Banchero and Moore joining Griffin and Williams with 15 points. Moore added eight assists, six rebounds and two steals to his stat sheet, while Banchero posted 13 rebounds in addition to his points and four assists.
Individually, it was clear Duke was overmatching the Orange. Collectively, they were simply overpowering them. The Blue Devils handed out 25 assists on 30 made baskets.
In addition to Moore’s eight, Jeremy Roach was also critical to Duke’s success in breaking down the zone. The sophomore did not shoot the ball particularly well, making just 2 of 10 shot attempts, but he handed out nine assists, while turning the ball over just once.
He and Moore combined for 17 assists and just two turnovers.
“We shared the ball well,” Mike Krzyzewski said. “The last two games, I think Jeremy has like 20 assists, two turnovers — something like that. He and Wendell were 17 and two today, assist to turnover.
“I’m proud of (Roach) because he didn’t shoot well, but it didn’t effect his defense and his passing. And that’s a sign of a really good player. We need him to keep doing it.”
Joey Baker also came up big for the Blue Devils off the bench, scoring 11 points, making 3 of 6 from beyond the arc.
Speaking of turnovers, Duke didn’t win the turnover battle — handing the ball over 15 times compared to Syracuse’s 10 — but what they did do was capitalize better on those miscues and shutdown the Orange’s top offensive weapons.
The Blue Devils converted Syracuse’s 10 turnovers into 20 points, while the visitors managed just 13 off Duke’s 15. And while that was a huge component to Duke’s ability to dominate the game, it was more about a smothering defense.
Syracuse had only a few open looks at the bucket, and even those were off course.
“I thought we played really good defense,” Krzyzewski said. “Part of playing good defense is when a guy gets an open look he might be rushed, or because he’s missed something could happen. We played good defense.”
Moore and Roach were once again the catalysts for Duke on that end of the floor. The duo was tasked with defending two of Syracuse’s top scorers — Buddy Boeheim and Joseph Girard III.
Moore had Boeheim, and the Blue Devils’ junior co-captain completely shut him down. He held Boeheim to just seven points on 2 of 15 shooting, including 1 of 10 from 3-point range. Boeheim didn’t score his first points until the 7:41 mark of the second half.
He was essentially rendered a non-factor in the game.
“He did a hell of a job,” Roach said of Moore. “He just knew what spots Buddy wanted to get to. He made it tough for him to get to those spots. Coach said they like to get fouled on those shots — on 3-pointers. I don’t think he committed one today on his jump shot.”
The same can be said for Girard, who Roach was responsible for defending. He also scored just seven points on a slightly better 3 of 13, and 1 of 9 from long range.
In addition to the perimeter defense, Jimmy Boeheim was held to just 12 points, nine of which came in the second half. He too shot the ball poorly, making just 4 of 11.
As a whole, Duke held Syracuse to 5 of 29 from 3-point range, and 24 of 68 overall.
“Our main thing was run them off the 3-point line, especially with this team here,” Moore noted. “Their two guards, Joe Girard, Buddy Boeheim — two of the best shooters we have in our conference, two of the best scorers we have. We had to come locked in early and it started with myself and Jeremy with those two assignments. We had to win those matchups.”
Convincing win, which it should have been. Cuse stinks. So a 30pt win is expected (not counting the garbage time when the game was over).
I still am concerned about our two primary weaknesses- unforced/boneheaded turnovers and poor weak side defensive rebounding leading to so many offensive boards. A team better than Cuse converts those into points- see Miami, FSU, OSU.
Let’s get another win tomorrow against Clemson.