When a player is hot, you feed him the rock. When an offense gets stagnant, players have to step up, adjust the approach and get it going.
On Sunday, Dillon Brooks and Tyler Dorsey helped No. 20 Oregon (4-0) do just that, leading them past an undefeated Valparaiso (5-1) team 73-67 that was the first team to reach five wins this season.
Brooks broke out with a season-high 26 points on 12-of-24 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds, while Dorsey added 21 points on a more efficient 7-of-9 outing. The two led Oregon out of its first-half funk and made the necessary plays down the stretch to pull out another close win.
“It was a team effort,” Brooks said. “The team got us the ball and we were scoring.”
“We knew it was going to be a hard game,” Dorsey said. “But me and Dillon had it going, so we were feeding off each other. Our other teammates made great plays and found us.”
In the first half, Oregon looked like a team that was hurting without reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year and Indiana Pacer Joseph Young, who had a knack for coming to the rescue in tight-knit games. Free throws weren’t falling (10-of-15), ball movement was staggered, threes were a non-factor (1-for-5), and above all, 10 uncharacteristic turnovers led to 13 “easy” points.
The Ducks struggled to consistently get easy looks against a disciplined Valparaiso defense that stayed in a pressuring zone, daring outside shots. Mostly though, Oregon’s struggles really had to do with its lazy, predictable passes that turned into easy buckets on the other end.
“That (turnovers) was probably our biggest concern at halftime,” Altman said. “They’re a good defensive team.”
In the second half, Oregon came out with more energy and cleaned up its mistakes. A lot of this had to do with Brooks’ eight straight points in the first five minutes, giving Oregon some much needed momentum. Brooks not only got it going with unforced, high-percentage looks inside the arc, but he also facilitated the offense.
“We just had to nut up, get stops and get rebounds,” Brooks said. “We just stressed to get the ball into the paint – inside-out. In the second half, we just bulked up and fought through it.”
Oregon’s turning point came with just under 10 minutes to play when they went on a 10-0 run to take a 63-53 lead. During this stretch, Brooks and Dorsey combined for eight points, four of them coming on back-to-back transition dunks and layups off turnovers.
Before the season, Dana Altman could see the make-up of his team was more balanced and potentially better than last year’s, which relied heavily on Young’s individual, late game theatrics.
Today, with the game coming down to the wire, Altman looked to players, like Brooks and Dorsey, who had the hot hands.
“We were trying to get it to Dillon and let him make plays from there,” Altman said. “His aggressiveness is what got us going.”
Altman was simply happy to pull out another close win, emphasizing the importance of being in grind-it-out games like today.
“We need to have a few ball games like that.”
Oregon is still working out its early-season kinks on offense – free throw shooting, getting good looks from the outside, limiting turnovers – and under this context, it’s relied heavily on a ‘defense-creates-offense’ type of approach. When you have a rim protector like Chris Boucher, who finished with nine boards and three blocks, and a team willing to buy into playing defense, though, it helps ease the pressure of finding an offensive identity this early in the season.
“We’ve got a lot of things to iron out,” Altman said in response to whether his team was still searching for an offensive identity. “We weren’t smooth, our execution wasn’t very good… hate to keep bringing up the turnovers, but that was really disappointing. Offensively, we’ve got a long ways to go. We’re not sharp with everything we do offensively, so there’s a lot of room for improvement.”
Oregon has yet to drop a game, but at some point or another, Altman must find an offensive approach that caters to his personnel.
Follow Hayden Kim on Twitter @HayDayKim