Duke men steamroll Stanford

Defense good, offense better in 106-70 win

Last week Jon Scheyer said the Clemson loss had to mean something, had to lead to learning, had to lead to growth.

I guess we can check that box. Duke returned home to face the two Silicon Valley newcomers. After a decisive 78-57 win over California Wednesday night Duke upped their game with a jaw-dropping 106-70 win over Stanford.

On paper Stanford should have been the tougher of the two. Stanford came into the game 8-6 in the ACC, 16-9 overall with hopes that an upset in Cameron would get the attention of the NCAA Tournament.

Maybe it did get their attention. But not in a good way.

Stanford was competitive early. Duke jumped to a 6-0 lead on a Khaman Maluach dunk and four free throws by Kon Knueppel and Cooper Flagg.

But the visitors clawed back to a 13-13 tie keyed by a pair of 3-pointers by French seven-footer Maxime Raynaud, arguably the nation’s most improved player.

“I was proud at the first media [timeout] we were alright at 11-10,” Stanford coach Kyle Smith said. “But they were just relentless.”

The optimism faded. Tyrese Proctor and Flagg knocked down 3s and Duke was up 21-13.

The game was last close at 21-17. Duke scored 10 straight and the lead never again dropped below 11.

James converted an offensive rebound at the buzzer and it was 49-34 at the half.

Lots of good things have to happen to have a 15-point halftime lead against a good team. But one thing stands out. Duke had 11 assists and one turnover at intermission.

One turnover, an errant Isaiah Evans pass.

“Our thing was to stay focused and stay sharp,” James said. “Our focus in practice is making sharp passes and keeping it simple. Don’t do anything crazy and just find the open guy.”

“You hope you can build a team like this all the time,” Scheyer said. “That was our goal in the off-season, where you had complete buy-in, complete unselfishness, while at the same time you want guys to be hungry for theirs and their individual future too. Our team’s embraced that.”

Proctor led Duke with 17 points at the half, followed by Flagg, Maluach and Knueppel with nine, eight and seven respectively. James had five assists.

Reynaud kept Stanford in the game, inasmuch as a 15-point deficit is in the game. He had 18 points, including four for seven from beyond the arc.

Duke was not happy about this.

“It was a challenge for us,” Maluach said. “We came into the locker room and adjusted. It’s a learning point and he gave us some challenges.”

The second half was a clinic gradually morphing into a fun fest. Duke shut down Reynaud, holding him to one second-half point. He ended with a very inefficient 19 points, 7 for 21 from the field, zero assists, one turnover.

Smith said he thought his star “just wore out a little bit. It got away from us. Their physicality, their length around the basket is pretty good.”

Duke grabbed 15 defensive rebounds in the second half, notched four steals and turned many of them into fast-break opportunities.

Early in the half there was a sweet sequence that started with a Flagg steal, a dribble or two, a pass ahead to Knueppel, then to James and back to Flagg for the dunk.

James scored in transition after a defensive rebound by Maluach and finished the and-one. Proctor hit a pull-up 3 in transition.

And so forth and et. cetera.

In the half-court Maluach stretched into next week for a catch and slam. Flagg assisted Malauch for a dunk three times in the second half.

The lead reached 29 when Flagg nailed a triple with 6:14 left. Scheyer emptied the bench.

Duke’s bench extended the 88-59 lead. Patrick Ngongba grabbed four rebounds and scored inside. Isaiah Evans and Darren Harris scored inside. Walk-on and former Stanford player Neal Begovich put an exclamation point on the win with a dunk, his first Duke field goal; he had two free throws last season.

And Caleb Foster scored 10 points in that 6:14 span. The former starter hadn’t played until then. Not a second.

Foster also had three rebounds and a steal.

I know, I know. Not a lot of game pressure here. But there’s a basketball axiom that sometimes a slumping player just needs to see the ball go through the basket.

Foster saw the ball go through the basket four times, twice from beyond the arc.

Carryover? TBD. But it’s a lot better than what we’ve been seeing from Foster and I continue to believe Foster can be an asset to Duke.

Anyway. Proctor led everyone with 23 points. Flagg had 19, Maluach 17 (8-9 from the field), James 14, Knueppel 9. Flagg and James had six assists, Maluach six rebounds, Flagg five.

Proctor has averaged 19.4 points per game over Duke’s last five games, 18 for 37 from beyond the arc.

Duke outrebounded Stanford 37-29, 23 assists, five turnovers, 14 for 29 from beyond the arc.

Former Blue Devil Jaylen Blakes had a rough home-coming. After a warm welcome in the pregame introductions, Blakes shot 1 for 10 and turned it over three times.

“Jaylen is Duke family,” Scheyer said. “But this is the only game I’m rooting against him.”

Duke is 22-3 overall, 14-1 ACC. Saturday’s reveal has Duke firmly as a one seed, with an opening weekend in Raleigh there for the taking.

A trip to Charlottesville Monday night, back home before the snow or ice or whatever vile concoction winter has in store for us in the Triangle.