Broken Blue Devils still unbeaten

Down two big men, Duke survived a series of scares over the break while facing out-of-conference competition--even one to ACC cellar-dweller Clemson. But 11 games into the season the Blue Devils remain undefeated and ranked fifth in the nation.E

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Since classes let out Duke beat Toledo, Illinois-Chicago, Clemson, Princeton and Temple all at Cameron Indoor Stadium and topped Oklahoma in a J.J. Redick-led second-half comeback at a packed Madison Square Garden.E

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Still, without forwards Shavlik Randolph, who is out indefinitely with mononucleosis, and Reggie Love, who suffered a broken foot in the 62-54 victory over Clemson Jan. 2 and will miss the next five to six weeks, Duke"s unblemished record may not stand for long. The team begins play in the nation"s best conference in earnest Thursday night with its only regular season matchup against N.C. State at 7 p.m. in Raleigh.E

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hat image to appear. EEEEE 'We"re not a great team, we"re a good team that has to have a lot of things go right or we have to make things go right,' head coach Mike Krzyzewski said Monday. 'We"re not going to blow anybody out. We have to play with them and keep things close in the end.'E

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Slow starts have been typical in Duke"s out-of-conference games, but with strong defense the Blue Devils have held the advantage at halftime in each contest except when they trailed Oklahoma by 10. Duke limited Clemson to 24 first-half points and Princeton to 19.E

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'I think it"s very important that we come out strong in the first half,' junior Sean Dockery said. 'We"ve been struggling, and we"ve been working on that in practice, and hopefully Thursday we"re going to get that done.'hat image to appear. EEEEE E

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At times Duke has looked like a team without a true point guard, resulting in frequently stagnant half-court sets and lackluster fast-break execution. Turnovers have troubled the team--12 steals by Temple"s zone resulted in fast breaks that kept the Owls in the contest as the Blue Devils keyed in from three-point range.E

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'Fortunately for us we"ve been able to win without really having a good offensive showing in 11 games,' senior Daniel Ewing said. 'Hopefully it will click real soon, beginning Thursday. The offense still hasn"t clicked the way we know it can, the way we can shoot the ball and the way we can spread out a defense, especially with the lineup we have now. We can just continue to be patient and try and work it out.'E

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Ewing remains the starting point guard, but Dockery steers the team for long stretches, allowing Ewing to become more of a scorer.E

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Led by Ewing and Redick--who has been the team"s hottest and most consistent player through the first 11 games--Duke is relying heavily on the three. The Blue Devils are hoisting up 22 threes per game, and Redick, the ACC"s leading scorer, is shooting better than 40 percent from behind the arc.E

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With Randolph and Love out, teams are keying in on Shelden Williams, the nation"s leading rebounder, by triple-teaming him at times when he catches the ball in the post. Lee Melchionni has moved into the starting lineup and hit much-needed threes at critical junctures of the games against Clemson and Temple.E

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When the program celebrated the 100th anniversary of Duke Basketball and the 65th anniversary of Cameron Indoor Stadium against Princeton Jan. 5, freshman DeMarcus Nelson came up with a similarly needed lift in the second half. Nelson, who injured his thumb in the preseason, is back at full strength after a protective brace affected his shooting for several games.E

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'We"ve been able to have one or two kids step up and make some big plays at certain junctures of a game,' said Krzyzewski, who celebrated his 700th victory with Duke"s win over Toledo Dec. 12. 'It"s not only Shelden or Daniel [Ewing]. Lee has made some, Sean, DeMarcus against Princeton.'E

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As the team moves into its ACC season, sluggish starts and inconsistent offense may not prove enough to win in a conference that featured seven top-25 teams for several weeks this fall. Still, with its three-point shooting, Duke has the opportunity to beat any team on a given night--the proven Cameron advantage might not be enough to vault a team, that in a close first half against Temple, featured a lineup of Redick, Dockery, Nelson, David McClure and walk-on Patrick Johnson to another conference championship.E

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