NEW YORK—In defeating any enemy, a good strategy is not necessarily to attack head-on, but to cut off all modes of supply.
On Thursday night, the Duke Blue Devils’ defense laid siege to UCLA guard Jordan Adams in an 80-63 victory. Sure, the sophomore guard had his lowest scoring total of 2013-2014 with just 10 points, but he also took just 10 shots – his third-lowest total in that category in the Bruins’ 11 games so far this season.
“He’s a really good player and one of the main things was we pressure the ball better, not necessarily on him, but on the other guys who make passes to him and everyone else who played against them,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
All season long, Adams’ bread and butter has been catching the ball near the baseline and releasing beyond the three-point line, a strategy that has worked the to tune of 18 made long-range shots. Against the Blue Devils, high-intensity on-ball defense on UCLA’s point guards – sophomore Kyle Anderson and freshman Bryce Alford – effectively took that shot away for long stretches.
While Adams finished with an uncharacteristically low three three-point attempts, UCLA’s other featured shooting guard, freshman Zach LaVine, was held to his least-impactful scoring performance in nine games.
Credit Duke sophomore guard Rasheed Sulaimon with the disruption. Thanks to his closeout speed and reach, LaVine was held to just 1-of-5 on a three-point shot he normally has time to take with several feet of breathing room.
In addressing the improvements that need to be made by his athletic freshman, who logged a bench-high 29 minutes for UCLA, coach Steve Alford offered very little other than a clear message to stay the course.
“(LaVine needs to) just keep doing what he’s doing. He’s gotten off to a great start and it’s all new,” Alford said. “You’re playing in Madison Square Garden in a nationally televised game against Duke and that’s the 11th game of your career. He would’ve liked to probably make more shots, but Zach’s playing hard.”
Wear-ing Three-Point Responsibility
With UCLA’s leading three-point shooters – Adams and LaVine – combining for just one deep ball in eight tries, redshirt senior forward David Wear had a career night beyond the three-point line, his four makes being his best three-point performance in his three years as a Bruin.
As Wear traditionally plays a game heavy in mid-range jumpers, the Blue Devils didn’t anticipate Wear’s ability to sink shots 10 feet further back, and he said capitalizing on the early omission was just business as usual.
“I mean, I just hit open shots,” Wear said. “The guys did a great job of finding me when I was open and those are shots I can make, so I just saw that I was open and shot with confidence.”
Now They’ve Seen Him
After witnessing the versatility of freshman forward Jabari Parker firsthand, the Bruins attempted to draw comparisons to the phenom, with Alford even drawing on former Syracuse standout Carmelo Anthony.
“He’s got a smoothness to him. He’s actually got great hands and feet,” Alford said. “I know we’re in New York City, but he’s got a lot of ‘Melo in him as far as a guy who can stretch to the three-point line; he can drive the basketball, he can create space and get jump shots and he can take you to the post.”
For Anderson, whose first exposure to Parker came in the AAU circuit, the freshman’s 23-point performance was more of the same.
“He played well and he did what he does,” Anderson said. “We wanted to shut him down a little more, but it’s tough.”