Duke Blue Devils Play 16 Minutes of Good Basketball and Win

Don’t be fooled by the final score, the Duke Blue Devils had their hands full Saturday afternoon. After struggling for over half the game, the Blue Devils rallied in the second half to take down the Virginia Cavaliers, 76-60.

The Blue Devils trailed for nearly 30 full minutes against a team that most predicted would finish near the bottom of the ACC this year…a team also without their best player, Mike Scott.

Despite their struggles, Duke improved to 16-1 on the season, 3-1 in the ACC.

So what just happened?

SHOOTING SLUMPS

For the fourth time in only four ACC games, Duke struggled to put the orange, round ball into the basket. For the game, they finished at 46 percent. However, that percentage was masked by a strong finish where Duke made 14 of their final 23 shots.

So far in four ACC games, Duke is hitting just 40 percent from the floor.

In particular, they’re struggling early in games to nail threes. Against Miami, Duke started 1-6 from three, and that was the good game. Against Maryland, Duke started 1-12, not hitting their first three until the four-minute mark in the first half. Against Florida State, they didn't hit any of their first 10 three-point shots. Against Virginia, it was another 1-11 start.

IT’S NOT JUST SHOOTING

Every team has a cold streak. As bad as Duke has been shooting the ball of late, it’s just a cold streak. It will end. Unfortunately, shooting isn’t Duke’s only problem.  For the fourth time in four ACC games, Duke had more turnovers than assists. Against Virginia, they had 13 assists to 15 turnovers. In four ACC games, they only have 41 assists to 59 turnovers.

OUR HERO

Nolan Smith again put the scoring load onto his shoulders. While everyone else failed to hit a shot, he kept shooting. Thankfully, enough went in. He finished with 29 points, dishing out six assists and grabbing seven rebounds. He’s now scoring like J.J Redick did back in his day. Nolan has scored over 25 in four of Duke’s last six games.

While Smith didn’t push the ball down low too often, he also didn’t live and die at the three-point line. He struggled at 1-6 from deep, but he really was on fire with his mid-range jumper. For the game, he hit 9-13 from two-point land.

THE DECIDERS

There were a lot of reasons why Duke lost against Florida State earlier this week, but one huge factor was the way Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry played. They couldn’t hit a three if you spotted them two. Against Virginia, the pair again started ice cold. They combined to hit only one shot in the first 24 minutes of the game.

However, Dawkins’ sudden ability to hit a long range shot was the spark that Duke needed in the second half. During the 10-minute run that saw the Blue Devils turn a nine-point deficit into a 10-point lead, Dawkins scored 12, hitting all four of his shots. Curry was able to chip in seven, including five of the first seven during that run.

Listen, Duke fans cannot and should not expect Duke’s big men to suddenly turn into stars this year. However, what this team can’t do is become a two-man offense of Smith and Kyle Singler. Curry and Dawkins are legit scorers and if both are having off nights, Duke will lose.

ZOUB-LITE

Prior to the start of the season, all the talk was about how Duke would be better underneath the basket because Mason Plumlee was a more gifted athlete, thus Mason could actually participate in the offense more than Brian Zoubek ever could.

Now, with Kyrie Irving out and Mason’s numbers way down, at this point I’d be happy if Mason can produce Zoubek-type numbers. Tonight, was a good start.

Mason got his first start in a while and wasted little time dominating the boards. He grabbed nine in the game's first 13 minutes and finished with 16 for the game.

Offensively, Mason is just not there yet. He’s certainly not hesitating like he did last year, so that’s good. Yet he’s still not a good finisher. Twice he pulled down an offensive rebound and both times he missed it. Thankfully, both times Singler was able to grab his miss and put it through the hoop.

Mason also turned it over four times. It was the third time in five games he’s turned it over at least four times. He’s got amazing athletic ability, but he still has hands of stone.

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