How a bold defensive switch fueled UCLA's furious rally past Oregon
LOS ANGELES — The most important contribution Lonzo Ball made to UCLA’s dramatic 82-79 victory over fifth-ranked Oregon wasn’t his impossibly deep last-minute 3-pointer or the smooth driving layup that preceded it.
The Bruins never would have overcome a 15-point second-half deficit were it not for his stifling defense.
When UCLA coach Steve Alford switched Ball onto Oregon star Dillon Brooks midway through the second half, the 10th-ranked Bruins were in jeopardy of being run off their own floor and in desperate need of a defensive spark. Oregon had carved up the oft-maligned UCLA defense by identifying perimeter mismatches and ruthlessly exploiting them.
Chief among UCLA’s issues was its inability to find a defender who could stay in front of Brooks. The versatile Oregon forward scorched the Bruins for 19 points in the game’s first 25 minutes, repeatedly blowing past taller, slower T.J. Leaf or Gyorgy Goloman when they guarded him out to the 3-point arc and burying threes in their face when they sagged off him to protect against the drive.
Switching to zone was Alford’s first adjustment, but Oregon shredded that with exquisite ball movement and lethal outside shooting. Only after UCLA’s deficit ballooned back to double digits did Alford opt to ask his point guard to defend the Ducks’ star combo forward.
“We did it periodically in the first game against Oregon and it was something we were really thinking about going into this game,” Alford said. “We made it a little bit harder for Brooks in the second half.”
Harder is an understatement. Brooks went from unstoppable to invisible.
Ball stymied his bigger, stronger adversary with quick feet and active hands the rest of the game, holding him scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting during the final 15 minutes. Without that mismatch to rely on, Oregon’s offense suddenly became stagnant and managed just 12 points in the final 12 minutes, giving UCLA’s high-powered offense the opportunity it needed to rally.
“The second half, it was different,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “It was like at the 10-minute mark we were stuck in the mud.”
That second-half surge was essentially UCLA’s last stand in its quest to win at least a share of the Pac-12 title.
Had the Bruins lost for the second time this season to Oregon, they would have fallen three games back of the Ducks and Arizona with only six games left to play. Instead UCLA (22-3, 9-3) sits a game back of Oregon and two behind Arizona, still a big deficit but not an insurmountable one considering the Bruins still have a game left in Tucson.
Defensive woes are the biggest reason UCLA’s Pac-12 title hopes appeared to be slipping away entering Thursday’s game. While the Bruins boast a high-octane, multifaceted offense that has been the nation’s most efficient all season, they’re 122nd in defensive efficiency, behind the likes of Towson, Winthrop and San Jose State.
A team that scores as prolifically as UCLA doesn’t need to be elite on defense to contend for a championship, but it’s hard to envision the Bruins winning six straight games in March without significant improvement. One of those games, their jump shots will desert them and their offense will go from otherworldly to merely above average. That’s when a solid defense will be a necessity.
That’s when UCLA will pay for a rotation full of guards and forwards who struggle to stay in front of their man and a conservative defensive philosophy that sacrifices turnovers and 3-pointers in its desperation to protect the paint.
Thursday’s game showed how effective UCLA can be when it defends with high effort and intensity even in spurts. Shutting down Oregon for just 15 minutes was all UCLA needed to string together a 21-4 run to seize control of a game it had once trailed by as many as 19 in the first half.
Ball had a hand in several of the baskets during the surge, but he saved his best for the final 90 seconds.
With the Bruins leading by three and 1:11 remaining, Ball torched Dylan Ennis on a one-on-one drive for a layup. Less than a minute later, Ball burned Ennis again, this time on a step-back 30-foot 3-pointer that extended the lead to five and spurred him to celebrate by bellowing, “This is my city!”
“Coach has been preaching it all month — February sets up March,” Ball said. “This was the perfect game for that.”
Ball finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds despite a poor first half, yet it wasn’t his offense that had his coach most pleased.
That Ball was able to shut down Brooks was impressive for a player who entered college with questions about his defense. Ball’s high school team is infamous for its up-tempo style and indifference to defense, but the 6-foot-6 point guard has shown flashes of high-level defensive potential this season in addition to his trademark passing and scoring prowess.
One of those flashes arrived Thursday night just when UCLA needed it most. Suddenly Brooks went silent. Suddenly Oregon’s offense went cold. And suddenly UCLA had the big win it needed to prove its March-ready.
“It was hard at first defensively because they were scoring every time,” Ball said. “We went man, zone. We were trying all different kinds of things.
“Credit Coach Alford for putting me on him. It helped the team win.”
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
