The Discomfort Zone: Duke's defensive adjustment throws off Wake Forest

How Duke used zone defense to help swing a comeback win on the road at Wake Forest

Duke has put a premium this season on defending the rim and controlling the glass. Currently, the Blue Devils rank Top 10 nationally in defensive rebound rate (75.3 percent) and defensive effective field goal percentage (42.8 eFG%). According to CBB Analytics, opponents have shot 57 percent at the rim (88th percentile) and 33.3 percent in the paint but outside the restricted area (95th percentile).

While constructing a Top 3 defense in the country, the ways in which Duke has achieved those results have varied, though. Of course, the Blue Devils have their base pick-and-roll concepts: dropping below the level when Khaman Maluach is engaged as a screen defender, or hedging and switching screens when Maliq Brown plays the 5. In certain matchups, like wins over Louisville and Pittsburgh, Duke has dialed up its willingness to switch on-ball actions 1-5. Duke limited the effectiveness of the No. 1 offense in the country by switching off-ball actions against Auburn’s modified Flex offense. During the Notre Dame win, Duke switched more 1-5 off-ball actions, too, with Maluach.

To improve to 17-2 (9-0 ACC) and scoop up a 13th straight victory (63-56 in Winston-Salem), the longest active win streak in the country, Duke had to try something different. Jon Scheyer and his staff reshuffled the deck against Steve Forbes and Wake Forest — using a half-court zone defense more in one game than it had the previous 18 games combined.

Despite suffering its least efficient offensive outing of the season (0.93 points per possession), Duke won on the road with an impressive, malleable defensive effort. Here’s how the Blue Devils got it done.

In the back pocket

Prior to the Wake Forest game, I’d charted only three possessions of half-court zone defense for Duke this season, all of which occurred after a timeout and/or with under one minute left in a half. Duke has used some zone press this season, too, including the Auburn game, though I’m not factoring the full-court possessions into the half-court calculus. Those possessions either ended with Duke falling back into man-to-man half-court defense or the opponent creating a result (FGA, TOV, foul) before the defense was set.

Two of these half-court zone possessions took place in the waining moments of mid-December blowout wins over UIW and George Mason.

Only one of these three plays occurred in the competitive run of play against a high-major opponent, which I wrote about after the win at Arizona. With about 40 seconds to go before halftime, Duke disrupted a Tommy Lloyd after-timeout (ATO) play by applying ball pressure with Sion James and Caleb Foster — before falling back into a 2-3 zone defense.

That was a clever curveball from Duke’s staff as it complicated things for an Arizona team that had surely crafted an ATO play to attack man-to-man defense. Unsurprisingly, Brown rendered Arizona’s possession void by forcing a turnover while defending the post.

During Duke’s two preseason games, I charted four possessions of half-court zone defense for the Blue Devils, all of which came after a timeout and/or with Duke up 50+ points. Interestingly, those half-court possessions of zone defense took place with Duke in more of a 3-2 or 1-2-2 shape and Brown, the center, atop the defense at the point of attack. It’ll be interesting to see if and when Duke is able to utilize this at some point this season. In theory, Scheyer could use Cooper Flagg at the point of attack in these zone looks, too.

Zone Off

With Duke’s offense stuck in the mud for the majority of the second half (8-of-28 FGA, 28.6 FG% over the final 20 minutes) against an elite defense, including a stretch of 1-of-17 shooting from the floor to start the half, the Blue Devils were on the verge of their first ACC loss this season.

After a Flagg layup cut Wake Forest’s lead to 45-41, Duke decided to change the rhythm of the game and flipped to a 2-3 zone. The 2-3 setup was pretty straight forward: Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel at the top, plus Mason Gillis, Patrick Ngongba and Flagg on the back line.

Late in the possession, Sallis misses a catch-and-shoot 3-point attempt, which is contested by both Knueppel and Flagg. Gillis ends the possession by making an incredible hustle play and winning a contested (team) rebound against the industrious Tre’Von Spillers.

Wake Forest was probably a little too casual getting into its action on the first zone possession. Efton Reid flashes to the high post for the first time with only 11 seconds left on the shot clock.

Given Wake Forest’s season-long perimeter shooting woes (27.7 3P%), and the fact that this isn’t a great offensive rebounding team (27.3% offensive rebound rate, No. 262 nationally), they project as a team that would be vulnerable against a zone.

Ty-Laur Johnson is a creative pass-first point guard, but he’s much easier to keep out of the paint with a zone defense. It’s hard to create driving lanes without moving the defense and changing sides of the floor. He’s also a negative shooter, with only seven 3-pointers (20.6 3P%) to his name this season. Look at how Duke’s defenders setup in the zone. They aren’t extending ball pressure along the perimeter. In fact, it’s the opposite; they’re packed in.

On the next possession, though, Wake Forest gets into its action much sooner. Spillers screens Proctor atop the zone while Sallis cuts to the left wing and Juke Harris flashes to the nail (middle of the free throw line), the go-to area against a zone. Harris does a nice job facing up on the catch and hitting a tough midrange jumper over Ngongba’s contest.

However, this bucket from Harris would prove to be Wake Forest’s only points against Duke’s zone. In total, Duke played six possessions of zone defense and allowed only two points: 0.33 points per possession. Wake Forest shot 1-of-6 from the field, including 0-of-3 from beyond the arc and 0-of-1 at the rim, against Duke’s zone and failed to grab a single offensive rebound.

On this possession, Wake Forest flashed multiple players to the nail — with Spillers and Reid taking turns buzzing into the middle of Duke’s zone. Cam Hildreth is able to touch the paint with a live dribble and Sallis — an excellent off-ball mover — cuts wisely behind Gillis along the baseline. Ngongba isn’t the quickest off his feet, but with his size and length, he’s able to alter this Sallis attempt.

This was the best look Wake Forest created against Duke’s zone: a shot at the rim off a guard for an All-ACC guard. That’s good process, but the results aren’t there to match. Ngongba gets credit here. The freshman center made the most of an extended opportunity in Winston-Salem with Brown out and Maluach in foul trouble.

Parker Friedrichsen, who made 50 3-pointers last year as a freshman (36.4 3P%), should be a zone-buster of sorts for Wake Forest; however, the sophomore guard been in a slump all season (19.4 3P%). It’s one of the more head-scratching regressions in the ACC this sesaon.

More importantly, if Forbes puts Friedrichsen out on the floor to juice the offense, it puts a target on Friedrichsen’s back and gives Duke another smaller player to hunt with Flagg in inverted pick-and-rolls. Flagg was a problem all afternoon attacking Johnson and Friedrichsen in inverted ball screens. This is where Wake Forest runs into some of its lineup versatility concerns.

Finally, after moving too slowly against the zone to start, the Demon Deacons looked rushed on their final possession of zone offense. Hildreth has seen his offensive efficiency jump in recent weeks (6.3 fouls drawn per 40 minutes and 37 3P% in ACC play), but he takes a quick, contested 3-point attempt on this possession. The ball never even cracks the perimeter for Wake Forest.

During this stretch, which lasted just under four minutes of actual game play, Duke asserted itself with a 10-2 run, regained the lead and held on for a victory.

Versatile in style

While the zone proved to be a noticeable, positive wrinkle for Duke’s defense, the Blue Devils did other interesting things on that side of the floor, too. Wake Forest managed to scored only 0.83 points per possession, producing Duke’s second best performance against an ACC opponent this season in terms of defensive efficiency. (Only Pittsburgh had a less efficient offensive game against Duke, scoring under 0.73 points per possession.)

Outside of high-post initiation with Reid, the three guys who handle the ball and operate pick-and-roll offense for Wake Forest are Johnson, Sallis and Hildreth. When Duke played man-to-man defense, it threw out different pick-and-roll coverages depending on which Wake Forest guard was controlling the ball.

In the game prior vs. North Carolina, Sallis didn’t have his most efficient outing of the season; however, the veteran guard cooked from the midrange against UNC’s drop coverage: all seven of his field goals came in the midrange.

Sallis is a nutty shotmaker, and his midrange scoring is the backbone of Wake Forest’s offense this season. It’s the failsafe. Duke decided to take that option off of the menu and hedge ball screens set for Sallis. For instance, Maluach hard hedges against Sallis late in the shot clock.

By committing two players to the ball, Duke puts its defense into rotation; three defenders are left to momentarily handle four offensive players on the back side. That said, the tactic pushed Sallis away from the rim and, in many cases, forced him to give the ball up. That’s a win for Duke. There are no guarantees, but can the other four guys beat you?

Here, Wake Forest runs a little weave action into a step-up ball screen for Sallis from Reid. Ngongba shows off his mobility in space, hedging out and funneling Sallis to the right with James. As Reid dives downhill, Flagg is in the paint to tag the roller — before closing out to Hildreth when the ball is swung back around for a spot-up 3-point attempt.

By my charting, Sallis scored just once out of the pick-and-roll against Duke’s man-to-man defense, and it didn’t come directly out of the ball screen either. With James switched on Spillers, Sallis gets a ball screen from his power forward. James switches out on Sallis, who passes over to Johnson. Wake Forest resets, Johnson passes the ball back and Sallis scores 1-on-1 against James, though even this bucket requires him to hit a tough off-dribble jumper.

Sallis finished with only 12 points, four turnovers and zero assists in 40 minutes of action. It took him more than 12 minutes of game play to score for the first time, which came in transition. Sallis had three dunks in this game: two in transition, one after the ATO, end-of-half play, where he received a flip handoff from Reid and got downhill for another slam. Moreover, Sallis scored just once from the midrange, too, in what’s one of his least efficient performances since his career took off at Wake Forest under Forbes.

Here, Wake Forest runs its Iverson series into a chase ball screen for Sallis, which Maluach hedges. Reid is free for a moment on the short roll, but Duke’s defense does an excellent job rotating behind the play. Flagg meets Reid on the short roll while Knueppel digs into the paint to prevent an easy duck-in pass to Spillers. Reid skips it to the weak side to Johnson, and Foster does well to closeout shot and defend the drive.

On these plays, Reid was able to get loose on the short roll some in the second half as Wake Forest’s offense found some traction and was able to squeeze something out off the attention committed to Sallis. It simply wasn’t enough, though, especially after Duke deployed the zone and stayed out of rotation.

The assignments, however, changed with Johnson and Hildreth. Johnson is turnover-prone, but his drives and passing passing have sparked Wake Forest’s offense since his inclusion to the starting lineup against Syracuse on Dec. 31. His passes set up a lot of rim finishes and spot-up 3-pointers.

In an effort to keep Johnson out of the paint, Duke applied drop coverage against Johnson — with Maluach, Ngongba and Gillis. For instance: as Reid screens here in the right slot for Johnson, Maluach is dropped underneath the 3-point line, while Flagg shows early help and digs in off Harris on the left wing. James fights over the top of Reid’s pick.

As Duke shows numbers to congest the paint against Johnson, he kicks out for a Harris 3-point attempt, which Flagg contests. It’s not a bad look for Harris, but Duke can live with a 31.7 percent 3-point shooter taking a contested jumper after only one pass — nine seconds into the possession.

Johnson finished with eight turnovers and only one turnover, which is solid, but some of that playmaking came in the open floor. Duke did well against Johnson in the half court, for the most part.

This is a little different, but as Duke navigates a “veer back” switch, the play demonstrates the importance of communication in taking away the rim. Johnson dribbles off a screen from Reid and Ngongba is initially in the drop. As Johnson gets closer to the paint, though, Ngongba stops his back-pedal and switch to Wake Forest’s point guard at the nail. While this happens, Knueppel, who starts the play by trailing Johnson in rearview pursuit, breaks off and veers back in the direction of Reid, completing the on-the-fly switch.

That’s really good stuff from two rookies.

While Hildreth is nowhere near as fast as Johnson, he’s a good passer and a powerful guard, known for his “Barkley” drives into the paint — dribbling from the wing to the low block for a post-up. In an effort to prevent his drive game, the terms of engagement were the same when Hildreth initiated pick-and-roll: outside of the occasional late-clock or drag screen switch, it was drop coverage while showing help.

Maluach defends the ball to start this baseline-under possession, so he’s matched with Sallis once the ball is entered into play. Gillis has Reid, who sets the ball screen for Hildreth. Once again, Duke is in the drop: Gillis is under the level of the screen and Maluach digs in with help from the strong-side corner. Through the entire possession, Duke keeps its defensive shell and Wake Forest is unable to bend or compromise the defense. Ultimately, it ends with a 3-point heave from Spillers as the shot clock expires.

There were also plenty of instances when Duke’s centers had to navigated multiple coverages across one long possession.

With Duke now out of the zone following the under-4 timeout, Wake Forest goes high pick-and-roll with Johnson and Reid. Ngonba is in drop coverage. Knueppel fights over the top and works hard to keep the ball in front. The Deacs reset late in the clock with Sallis-Reid screen-roll. Ngongba hard hedges the screen and Sallis throws a pocket pass to Reid on the short roll. Knueppel stunts off the wing and shows help at the right elbow, which takes away any airspace for Reid. With Spillers in the right dunker spot, Reid shows off his processing speed with a quick post-to-post pass. Duke’s defense is on a string, though: Gillis rotates back to Spillers and Flagg comes off the left wing as a source of weak-side rim protection. As a result, Spillers can’t go up strong; he must fade away from the basket. Once more, Spillers is forced into a tough shot late in the clock.

This is where you can Duke’s comfort level playing off of Wake Forest’s spot-up shooters — Hildreth and Johnson — while committing extra attention to Sallis. The Blue Devils didn’t play a junk defense and aggressively sag off of one; however, they were willing to let them catch it cleanly and then close out. Plus, if the best pathway for second-side points is to tic-tac-toe and pass the ball in tight windows, the help defense has time to react and collapse the paint.

Here’s a similar setup in the first half: spread pick-and-roll with Johnson and Reid. Ngongba drops below the level and Flagg digs in at the left elbow. Knueppel contains Johnson and keeps the ball in front. Johnson kicks out to Sallis and Wake Forest resets with another ball screen. Sallis sees a crack of daylight and lets it fly as Wake Forest tries to get the 2-for-1 before halftime. Ngongba hedges out and helps contest the tough 3-point attempt.

Gillis does an excellent job coming off of the corner to box out Reid, which free Flagg (21.3 percent defensive rebound rate) up to pluck another rebound.

Even without Brown, the lineup versatility Duke has around Flagg is pretty special. The Blue Devils can go small or big with Flagg at one of the frontcourt spots. For the season now, Duke is +103 in 145 minutes with Flagg and Gillis on the floor together, per CBB Analytics, including a defensive rating of 77.1 points per 100 possessions (100th percentile) and a defensive rebound rate of 78.8 percent (99th percentile).

The Blue Devils played 19 minutes with Flagg, Gillis and Ngonba on the floor together at Wake Forest. They outscored Wake Forest by 19 points with that trio on the floor: 1.38 points per possession on offense and only 0.74 points per possession allowed on defense. Wake Forest shot 2-of-12 on 2-point attempts (16.7 2P%) away from the rim and 1-of-6 on 3-point attempts against those lineups.