Duke Dunks Pitt, 76-47 – Duke Basketball Report

That thump.

Everyone is going to be talking about That Dunk. Not just tonight and tomorrow, but for a long time. Why? Because it was absolutely incredible. But there’s a catch: it was just part of a stunning performance by Cooper Flagg that helped propel Duke to a 76-47 victory.

Flagg picked up two early fouls and spent a good portion of the first half on the bench as a result.

It could just be perception, we could be wrong about this, but in the second half Flagg played like he was really mad.

Seriously.

Flag owned the first 10 minutes of the second half and at both ends of the pitch. He was incredibly alert. On defense, he picked up guards and played away from his guy a little bit, even when the guy was under the basket and still checking him.

Did the guy drive? Flagg stepped up and changed the game.

The shot went up?

Flagg got the rebound.

Flagg brought the ball up. Flagg made smart passes. Flagg scored or made someone else score pretty much at will.

Remember what people said about him at the Olympic trials this summer? That for three minutes he was the most dominant player on the pitch?

That guy showed up. It was the most complete…it wasn’t a whole game. But the last time we saw a Duke player play a full game at that level was Shane Battier’s final game, when he helped the Blue Devils win the national championship in 2001.

If you didn’t realize it or haven’t seen the game, watch around the first 10 minutes and focus on Flagg. You won’t believe it.

Not that the first half was bad or anything.

Duke started 3-3 and then fell into a deep freeze, hitting just 1-13 after that. Fortunately, Pitt was no better. Both Jon Scheyer, who returned after missing the SMU game with an illness, and Jeff Capel, who like Scheyer played for and later assisted Mike Krzyzewski, are excellent defensive coaches. Some of it was missing shots, but a bigger part of it was just tough, physical defense from both teams.

And when Flagg picked up his second foul at 12:30, he left for good.

The thing is, Duke started to pull away when Flagg was on the bench. The Blue Devils pulled ahead 15-14 on a Mason Gillis layup and then just steadily pulled away.

When Kon Knueppel hit a pair of threes with the 4:33 mark of the second, the Blue Devils were up 29-19, it was hard to imagine that Pitt would come back. Stranger things have happened, but it just seemed unlikely.

And then the second half started and Flagg took his game from bad to good to incredible.

Take a look at ESPN’s play-by-play of the second half:

• 19:49 Cooper Flagg made Jumper. 24-36
• 19:30 Cooper Flagg Defensive Rebound. 24-36
• 19:25 Cooper Flagg missed Layup. 24-36
• 19:14 Cooper Flagg Defensive Rebound. 24-36
• 18:45 Cooper Flag Block.
• 17:35 Cooper Flagg steals. 26-37
• 17:32 Cooper Flagg made the Dunk. 26-39
• 17:32 Cooper Flagg made the free throw. 26-40
• 16:47 Cooper Flagg made the Dunk. 28-42

It was one of the most dominant stretches of basketball we’ve seen in years. Flagg is typically content to just watch his team win, and he doesn’t care about his personal stats if they do.

Whatever happened, we got to see him in takeover mode for the first time.

Not that he was perfect. He still doesn’t understand that he can’t spin into defenders without getting his pocket picked. A shot was essentially an air ball.

But in general?

The positives far outweighed the negatives.

Okay, Flagg raves over for now.

The rest of the team was also pretty solid, not least Khaman Maluach who seems to be taking his game to another level. We saw signs of this at SMU on Saturday and more on Tuesday night.

Many times he has been cautious under the basket, unwilling to get physical. Well, that phase may be over. Malauch was much more physical here than we’ve seen him. He was also more aggressive on defense. It’s not that he blocked more shots – he was only credited with one block. But he has more of an attitude about it.

Before SMU, he often just put his hands up, and since his standing reach is nearly rim height, that’s a factor.

Lately, though, he hasn’t settled for that, and especially in the second half, SMU really didn’t take that many shots when he was around. It changes things.

Maluach finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.

Kon Knueppel also played well and hit 4-7 on threes and 5-12 overall.

Tyrese Proctor finished with 13 points and Sion James with 10 and seven rebounds.

The bench didn’t contribute much offensively, but it didn’t need to this time. It’s nothing to worry about.

In the end, Duke held Pitt to 6-20 from three-point range — there would be no repeat of last year’s brilliant three-point shooting by Blake Hinson, who hit 7-7 from deep — and just 31 percent overall (18-58). .

Duke also hammered Pitt on the boards, 41-26, with both teams getting nine second-chance shots.

The most impressive part of the night might have been the last 7:59, though, because that was the last time Pitt scored.

Duke was up 58-47 and outscored the Panthers 18-0 in the final eight minutes of the game.

As brilliant as Flagg’s performance was in the first part of the second half, what Duke did overall against a very good Pitt team was amazing.

There are definitely things about this game that could be improved. The 1-13 stretch in the first half was pretty bad. That Duke ended up shooting 50 percent overall (26-52) and 55 percent from behind the line (11-20) is a little crazy after the long, cold stretch.

And Duke had 14 turnovers, including Flagg’s spins in traffic.

The things you can work on and get better at.

Holding a team scoreless for 8:00 (just give it another one, it’s no problem you tightwad), for the last 8:00, is something former Virginia coach Tony Bennett would love.

Duke has shown tremendous growth in the last two games. We can’t wait to see what’s next.

Notes – we saw the late flagrant call against Damian Dunn and still don’t get it…as Corey Alexander suggested it was just a tap, but a tap below the belt can be devastating…but it didn’t look like a Chris Paul -special…Proctor looked like he was in pain so maybe the video didn’t show it as well as it could have…Duke shot very well despite Isaiah Evans not scoring at all…recently has he show an ability come in and light it up…James had five rebounds in the first half and seven for the game…he’s been able to get to the basket quite a bit lately…in his postgame comments Capel said it was a lot. Flagg special is his competitive spirit, and that it permeates the team…