The Bruins are finding ways to make games interesting.
For the first 14 minutes of the first half on Saturday, UCLA played uninspired, poor defense. Guard Josh Shipp credited it with a lack of intensity and coach Ben Howland was loath to describe it as such, but for whatever reason, UCLA was down 32-14 in the first half.
Then the Bruins decided to wake up.
Over the final 26 minutes of the game, UCLA outscored Davidson by 30 en route to a seemingly comfortable 75-63 victory at the Wooden Classic in Anaheim.
But it was those first 14 minutes that could have the most significance in terms of the rest of the season.
There have now been three games against quality opponents ““ Michigan State, Texas and Davidson ““ and in each one of those contests, the Bruins were down by large margins in the first half.
“It’s tough to say (why we have these huge deficits),” Shipp said. “If we knew the answer we wouldn’t do it. It’s something we’re trying to get over. I think it’s basically our intensity level. I don’t think we’re coming out with that great level we need to and because of that we’re falling behind.”
Whatever the case, in the beginning of the game, Davidson was getting open look after open look. Although they shot just over 50 percent in the first half, they missed just one of their first eight shots ““ and even the miss was an open look.
The Bruins were not rotating on defense well, there was little ball pressure as point guard Darren Collison appeared tentative in moving laterally on his healing left knee, and guard Russell Westbrook seemed like the only Bruin playing with any kind of intensity.
Then the light clicked on, and Davidson was history.
“For me it’s, I’ve been there, done that,” Shipp said. “I’ve been through a lot of tough games. A lot of the guys as well, so it’s just having that experience, and knowing when (not) to quit. A lot of the guys, they are competitors. They don’t want to quit.”
But a little under a week after falling far behind Texas in the first half before having to scramble to play catch up in the second, the Bruins were left again in a position where they had to execute a huge comeback.
Howland, for one, doesn’t see the consecutive slow starts as related.
“For example the Texas game, we scored early,” Howland said. “We were up 14 to 11 and then all of a sudden we became just a perimeter-shooting team against the zone and they went on that huge run. But today, I’m gonna look at the film as soon as we get back to the office. I thought number one, we really got exposed by some of their slips.”
In the first few minutes, Davidson scored on a couple of backdoor plays where they ended up with a lay-up, and that seemed to help open up the defense for the open 3-pointers. As Davidson jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, UCLA did not lead in the game until the second half.
But thanks to improved team defense, and the inspired offensive play of forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, the Bruins were able to end the half on their own 16-2 run and then proceed to blow Davidson out in the second half.
“The whole team came out defensively, pressuring the ball, making them throw away passes, creating fast break points,” Westbrook said.
And in the end, it was enough. The Bruins flipped the proverbial switch in time, and, if a few prayer 3-pointers by Davidson in the second half didn’t fall in, the final score would have looked even more lopsided.
But against a team with more talent than Davidson, as the Texas game proved, the Bruins could find themselves staring at another loss if they continue with the poor starts.
“We just better figure out a way to (go on big runs) without getting that deficit,” Howland said.