Defensive Identity?

[BlueintheFace]

Duke's offense has really been jump-started by E-Will, and this team is really playing with some guts now, but is anybody else worried about the defense of late.

Don't get me wrong, I'll take any win and be happy about it no matter how bad the D is, but I am a bit concerned moving in to March. Defense used to be our identity and anchor. I used to actually feel more confident about this team earlier in the season because I knew that no matter what our defense would at least keep us right with any team. Then Clemson happened...

-Are we bringing the same intensity of Defense?
-Is it the personnel changes?
- Am I stressing myself out about nothing?
-Or, are teams finally just matching our intensity as the end of the season grows nearer, and that edge in effort we had earlier in the season is starting to become negated by teams playing with more energy down the home stretch?

This last explanation, IMO, is the reason why Duke has had a few rough outings in recent Marches. Our talent level has not been a big advantage, so our intensity was all season long, but as teams grew desperate for wins and seeding, and hopes of advancing, that advantage disappeared. I think this team actually has a bit more of the talent advantage, but are we facing the intensity-matching issue again on defense?

Here are the Season FG% vs the FG% given up by us in the last three games (all wins).

MD: 48% (season avg: 42%)
WF: 61% (season avg: 50%)
St. John's: 54% (season avg: 43%)

Additionally, a few weeks ago Kenpom had us as the #1 team in the country for defensive efficiency. Now we are 8th and dropping.

Thoughts?

[Oriole Way]

Duke's offense has really been jump-started by E-Will, and this team is really playing with some guts now, but is anybody else worried about the defense of late.

Don't get me wrong, I'll take any win and be happy about it no matter how bad the D is, but I am a bit concerned moving in to March. Defense used to be our identity and anchor. I used to actually feel more confident about this team earlier in the season because I knew that no matter what our defense would at least keep us right with any team. Then Clemson happened...

-Are we bringing the same intensity of Defense?
-Is it the personnel changes?
- Am I stressing myself out about nothing?
-Or, are teams finally just matching our intensity as the end of the season grows nearer, and that edge in effort we had earlier in the season is starting to become negated by teams playing with more energy down the home stretch?

This last explanation, IMO, is the reason why Duke has had a few rough outings in recent Marches. Our talent level has not been a big advantage, so our intensity was all season long, but as teams grew desperate for wins and seeding, and hopes of advancing, that advantage disappeared. I think this team actually has a bit more of the talent advantage, but are we facing the intensity-matching issue again on defense?

Here are the Season FG% vs the FG% given up by us in the last three games (all wins).

MD: 48% (season avg: 42%)
WF: 61% (season avg: 50%)
St. John's: 54% (season avg: 43%)

Additionally, a few weeks ago Kenpom had us as the #1 team in the country for defensive efficiency. Now we are 9th and dropping.

Thoughts?

The defense definitely needs to some work, especially stopping penetration and easy layups. But I can't stress enough how our defense looked much better earlier than the season because our opponents were so much worse. The ACC is the best conference in the nation and one of the many reasons for that is that every team is athletic and has guards that can score off the dribble.

I have said before that our team's issues were offensive. Now that we are scoring efficiently, we are winning. I am not saying that the defense doesn't need to be addressed - it does. But part of the reason it looks so bad is that our opponents are damn good, and far better relative to most of the teams we played leading up to conference play.

[BlueintheFace]

But I can't stress enough how our defense looked much better earlier than the season because our opponents were so much worse.

Even within the ACC though...

In our first 7 ACC games our opponents averaged 54 pts/game. Then Clemson happened. Since then we have played 6 games and our opponents have averaged 80.5 ppg.

[roywhite]

Most of the success teams have had against us recently is of the same type:

Teams are utilizing the dribble drive, and limiting their passing on the perimeter (of the type that we frequently intercepted earlier).
Teams are getting into the lane, and going to the rim, or taking 7 or 8 foot shots, hitting a high %.
We're not blocking as many shots, partly because Zoubs is playing less.

Really, I'm not sure we can make major improvements in the next month, but there are some measures:

In the second half last night, we limited the drives by changing our defensive positioning somewhat, "angling" differently against the opposing player so they could not easily get toward the middle.
Nolan Smith, with good health and some good outings, can improve our defense.
Plumlee hopefully gets more effective
Elliot Williams continues to get better on team defense, which he has been.

Finally, not that we can count on it, but I think opponents have had some just plain hot shooting nights, and that should even out.

[Kfanarmy]

It seems to me Duke was playing stifling defense early partly because of competition but also because they were going at it 100% all of the time. I thought, and others seem to have as well, that the effort was wilting them in the last 2-3 minutes...they were holding teams down pretty good, but they were being held down when it counted by the opposing defense and hitting the wall late in the second half...as the team entered ACC play, it became more evident. I think there has been a slight adjustment where they play good-solid defense throughout the game and mix in highly focused bursts of defense at select moments within the game...which has enabled a bit more "freshness" on the offensive end. perhaps just my perception.

[DoubleDuke Dad]

Most of the success teams have had against us recently is of the same type:

Teams are utilizing the dribble drive, and limiting their passing on the perimeter (of the type that we frequently intercepted earlier).
Teams are getting into the lane, and going to the rim, or taking 7 or 8 foot shots, hitting a high %.
We're not blocking as many shots, partly because Zoubs is playing less.

Really, I'm not sure we can make major improvements in the next month, but there are some measures:

In the second half last night, we limited the drives by changing our defensive positioning somewhat, "angling" differently against the opposing player so they could not easily get toward the middle.
Nolan Smith, with good health and some good outings, can improve our defense.
Plumlee hopefully gets more effective
Elliot Williams continues to get better on team defense, which he has been.

Finally, not that we can count on it, but I think opponents have had some just plain hot shooting nights, and that should even out.

I believe Roywhite has identified our current defensive problems. Teams have started going “NBA” on us. Rather then pass the ball to get a man open they are using the clear out/isolation play where the player dribbles the ball and then drives to the basket. The rest of the Duke players are too far from the basket to help for the Duke defender stop the drive.

[kinghoops]

i thought the defense was pretty sharp in the 2nd half last nite, didnt give up nearly the same amount of layups as opposed to the first half, very few open jump shots, recall several pass deflections and the defensive rebounding was pretty solid. i think sometimes you can look at field goal percentages in a different light. every shot that maryland hit in the 2nd half was well defended, sometimes teams just hit shots, example, the three pointer that was hit over zoubs with the shot clock running out, faling to his right and he still hit the shot. it happens! defense was pretty solid! especially after halftime

[yancem]

Finally, not that we can count on it, but I think opponents have had some just plain hot shooting nights, and that should even out.

I think that this a point that can't be overlooked. Over the last 5-6 games Duke's opponents have made some ridiculous shots, Hansolo's falling backwords last second 3pt, Johnson's 3pt bank shot, Teagues' 2 25 ft 3 pts, various acrobatic 3-5 ft shots by Ish Smith, Lawson, Teague, Rice, etc. I'm not saying that Duke's defense hasn't seemed less effective lately but sometimes there's only so much you can do. When a team shoots 60% for a game, unless everything is an uncontested layup, it can't all be blamed in defense; the offense still has to make the shots.

This goes a long with the "Duke gets everyone's best shot" mode of thinking. The last few years, we have lost a little of our intimidation factor so instead of being slightly nervous teams are simply amped up for playing us. The good news is that usually the adrenaline rush only lasts for about a half and eventually the "horse" shots won't fall. Hopefully we can play solid enough defense to stay in the games and give Henderson, Singler and Scheyer a chance to take over.

[mike88]

I don't think you can discount the influence of Zoubek's reduction in playing time on our defensive efficiency. Drectly or indirectly, we seem to do better with him in the game- I amnot sure if the statistics would bear it out, but fewer driving lanes are available when he is planted in the lane, which may cut down on our trouble handling penetration.

Unfortunately, we may also sacrifice some offensive effectiveness, in the sense that Zoubek's presence in the low post on offense creates fewer wide open driving lanes for Gerald, Kyle, and Jon.

[MChambers]

I don't think you can discount the influence of Zoubek's reduction in playing time on our defensive efficiency. Drectly or indirectly, we seem to do better with him in the game- I amnot sure if the statistics would bear it out, but fewer driving lanes are available when he is planted in the lane, which may cut down on our trouble handling penetration.

Unfortunately, we may also sacrifice some offensive effectiveness, in the sense that Zoubek's presence in the low post on offense creates fewer wide open driving lanes for Gerald, Kyle, and Jon.

Boy, do I agree with this. I also think that Nolan Smith was a big factor in Duke's defense early in the year.

I don't think it is a coincidence that our defensive numbers have declined as Zoubek and Smith's playing time has decreased.

[NSDukeFan]

Even within the ACC though...

In our first 7 ACC games our opponents averaged 54 pts/game. Then Clemson happened. Since then we have played 6 games and our opponents have averaged 80.5 ppg.

I have to agree with you that our defense is no longer our calling card. I think part of that has to be attributed to Nolan not playing as well lately as he was the first line of defense and did a great job on opponents' ballhandlers. I think that Zoubek not playing as well has been a factor as well, as he and Plumlee, (with apologies to G) are our only players with much of a shot-blocking, or maybe more importantly shot-altering or shot-discouraging potential. Lance and Dave are better in many ways, but don't discourage shots from penetration. Ideally, we wouldn't need that as we would keep everyone in front of us, which we were doing better earlier in the season.

I recognize that the ACC is the toughest conference, which has affected our results, but I don't know if I buy the argument that our early schedule was the reason for our great D. Xavier, Purdue, Georgetown, even Davidson and Michigan and our early ACC schedule all were good teams that we defended well against.

Yes, teams get up to play Duke and the overall intensity is higher this time of year, but I still think our defense can get a little stronger in the next few weeks. It would nice to have our D back so that if we do have a cold shooting game early in the tournament (either one), we will still get enough defensive stops to win. And combined with our new found offensive mojo, we will be a tough out for any team, anywhere.

I think you are right on the money as far as this being a cause for concern, and an area to improve on, but fortunately we have had a couple of great wins and look to be back on track, even if our D isn't.

[Troublemaker]

The last 3 games, McClure has only played 0, 10, and 12 minutes due to his flu and (I assume) subsequent convalescence. I'd like to see him fully recovered and playing 20-25 min again before I judge the defense too harshly. I know Duke's defensive slippage began before Dave got sick, but that means it also began before Elliot became a starter. We haven't seen both Elliot and Dave play starter's minutes together yet. I think it could make a difference, as Dave is a very good defender.

Last night, when Dave came into the game late with the score tied, I became much more comfortable that Duke would win the game. I bet many of you shared this same feeling, and sure enough, Duke promptly went on a run. He might not have had any eye-popping plays, but Dave gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling with his presence in the game. I know he's in control, will defensive rebound, make the right pass, not turn it over, etc.

With all that said, I do think the citing of opponent strength is on the mark.