Charting Duke v. St. Louis

[pfrduke]

Great performance from the bench tonight. The top 3 lineups each featured Thornton, Curry, and Kelly, and those guys (along with Singler and Smith) were the top 5 in raw +/- and finished 1, 2, and 3 in +/- per 40. Seth, in particular, has responded very well to the increased playing time that has resulted from Irving's injury, especially on the defensive end. On the offensive side of the ball, we scored much more easily with the bench in tonight - for example, Mason played 11 minutes, during which the team scored 18; Tyler played just 3 more minutes, and the team scored 23(!) more points.

It was a thorough domination of St. Louis - no lineup finished in the negative, and there was only one time where Duke was outscored between substitutions (the very start of the second half where the starters got beat 11-7).

Individuals
Seth Curry 60-24 (+36)
Kyle Singler 68-37 (+31)
Ryan Kelly 45-17 (+28)
Nolan Smith 67-40 (+27)
Tyler Thornton 41-18 (+23)
Miles Plumlee 55-37 (+18)
Josh Hairston 32-18 (+14)
Andre Dawkins 30-25 (+5)
Mason Plumlee 18-15 (+3)
Casey Peters 2-2 (0)
Todd Zafirovski 2-2 (0)

Per 40 Minutes
Tyler Thornton +65.7
Ryan Kelly +56.0
Seth Curry +55.4
Kyle Singler +37.6
Josh Hairston +37.3
Nolan Smith +34.8
Miles Plumlee +24.0
Andre Dawkins +11.1
Mason Plumlee +10.9
Casey Peters 0.0
Todd Zafirovski 0.0

Lineups (Score, times used, margin)
Thornton-Smith-Curry-Singler-Kelly (13-4, x2, +9)
Thornton-Curry-Singler-Hairston-Kelly (9-2, x1, +7)
Thornton-Curry-Hairston-Kelly-Miles (6-3, x1, +3)
Smith-Curry-Singler-Kelly-Miles (5-2, x2, +3)
Smith-Curry-Singler-Mason-Kelly (5-2, x2, +3)
Thornton-Smith-Curry-Singler-Miles (5-2, x2, +3)
Smith-Curry-Singler-Hairston-Miles (3-0, x1, +3)
Smith-Curry-Dawkins-Singler-Miles (4-2, x1, +2)
Smith-Curry-Dawkins-Hairston-Miles (2-0, x1, +2)
Smith-Dawkins-Singler-Hairston-Miles (7-6, x1, +1)
Thornton-Smith-Curry-Hairston-Miles (6-5, x1, +1)
Smith-Dawkins-Singler-Mason-Miles (13-13, x2, 0)
Smith-Dawkins-Singler-Kelly-Miles (4-4, x1, 0)
Thornton-Curry-Peters-Hairston-Zafirovski (2-2, x1, 0)
Curry-Dawkins-Singler-Hairston-Miles (0-0, x1, 0)

[Spy]

Hhmm... the most productive lineup suggests how well Thornton managed the offense today. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing him start one of these next couple games or one of the first ACC games just to see if he can handle the workload if Kyrie turns out to be out for some extended amount of time.

[Bob Green]

Wow! I knew Thornton played a solid game today but I am a bit surprised to see him in our Top 3 line-ups. Today was a solid performance in a game that really allowed Coach Krzyzewski to tinker with the line-up.

[DukieTiger]

Wow! I knew Thornton played a solid game today but I am a bit surprised to see him in our Top 3 line-ups. Today was a solid performance in a game that really allowed Coach Krzyzewski to tinker with the line-up.

Thornton being in and helping distribute the ball means that Nolan (and Seth, but mostly Nolan) can play off ball once again and focus on scoring- which probably accounted for some of the numbers Duke put up while TT was in. Ty has great value in that regard, but more than that I just thought he played a heck of a game! Tough defense and smart, crisp passes.