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Duke

Duke's Smith, now on bench, eager to face high school teammate Lawson

By Jake Lloyd

Feb 9, 2009

Durham, N.C. — During his high school career at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, Nolan Smith often played alongside Ty Lawson.

The pair of guards formed a formidable combo for one of the nation's most successful high school programs.

Now, however, Smith will face off against Lawson when sixth-ranked Duke (20-3, 7-2 ACC) hosts North Carolina (21-2, 7-2) Wednesday night.

But Duke's sophomore point guard won't be standing next to the Tar Heels' junior when the opening tip goes up. Rather, Smith will be relegated to the bench for the second consecutive game.

After his poorest outing of the season in Duke's 74-47 loss to Clemson last Wednesday, Smith was benched in favor of Greg Paulus. The senior tri-captain proceeded to play his best game of the season on Saturday, scoring a season-high 18 points and leading Duke to a come-from-behind 78-75 overtime win over Miami.

Despite the benching and playing just 7 minutes against the Hurricanes, Smith said with a smile on Monday that he's ready to go against his former high school teammate.

"I'm excited," Smith said. "I wanted him 100 percent last year. Now with him speeding up and down the court, it's going to be a huge task to stop him and turn him into a half-court player (where) he's not going 94 feet."

Lawson missed the teams' first game last season — a Duke win in Chapel Hill — with an ankle injury and wasn't completely healthy for the Tear Heels' victory in the regular-season finale at Duke. This season, he's injury-free and the player who makes the Heels tick.

With Lawson's ability to push the ball the entire length of the court and with the way wings Wayne Ellington and Danny Green are shooting from the perimeter, coach Mike Krzyzewski knows the defensive challenge that lies ahead.

"Everybody's important (defensively)," Krzyzewski said. "No one person can stop Lawson on a fast break. It's a team commitment to trying to slow their offense down."

Still, the Devils will need solid play on both ends of the court from their duo of point guards — something that didn't occur in the team's worst loss in nearly 19 years at Clemson.

In that game, Smith was often tentative with the ball against the Tigers' full-court press. He had zero assists, four turnovers and shot just 1-for-7. It was a performance that shook his confidence a little bit.

After all, Smith hasn't been a point guard his entire basketball career. It has been a process at Duke, where he came off the bench a year ago before earning the starting spot prior to this season.

"Yeah, it's something I need to regain," Smith said of his belief in himself after the Miami game. "Early in the ACC, I definitely started to lose that confidence to speak out. So I definitely need to get it back.

"Being a point guard, you can't be quiet. Sometimes I'm quiet and don't really say much. So I just need to pick that up."

On Monday, Smith said he has regained that confidence and is ready to play assertively whenever he's inserted into the game.

"My confidence is 100 percent, I'm happy," he said. "The last game I didn't play my normal minutes and Greg had a great game. But come Wednesday, we're going to need both of us out there and I'm going to have to be a great player."

Paulus has been in the starting lineup for all six of his Duke-North Carolina games, so Wednesday will be nothing new to him. What will be different for Paulus from a year ago is facing a healthy, speedy Lawson.

One thing Paulus won't face is a lack of confidence. Against the Hurricanes, he played one of his best games. Krzyzewski said afterward that Paulus became Duke's leader during the Devils' comeback from a 16-point, second-half deficit.

He'll no doubt carry that into Cameron Indoor Stadium against the Heels.

"I think (leadership) is something I can help the team out with," Paulus said. "I've been around for a while, been in all types of games, have experience. I love to talk, communicate and organize and put people in positions where they can be successful.

"That's how I can help the team and that's something that I want to do."

Whether Paulus can help slow down Lawson is a much bigger issue for the Devils. And it's another reason why a bounce-back game from Smith might be a needed ingredient for a Duke win.

The Devils pride themselves on playing team defense and helping each other, but they know that their defensive pressure starts with the point guard position. Paulus simply doesn't have the same lateral quickness as Smith.

"Our defense does start with Nolan," Kyle Singler said a couple weeks ago before Smith was benched. "When he's out there pressuring the ball, that's where it starts.

"He makes it tough for their point guard to set up their offense and takes away the actions that they want to run."

Smith isn't as fast as Lawson, but he's shown the ability to slow down quicker, more athletic players. Even in Duke's 70-68 loss at Wake Forest, he helped hold Jeff Teague to 4-of-14 shooting and 14 points — well below his scoring average.

But if he doesn't run the offense and communicate well to his teammates, it won't matter what he does on defense. He needs to be effective on both ends of the court for Duke to be successful when he's running the show.

"The game at Clemson, I really didn't lead that well," Smith said. "Therefore, (Krzyzewski) decided to put Greg out there to give that leadership. I'm ready now, seeing how Greg played (against Miami) and he led.

"Come Wednesday, hopefully Greg and I will be out there together leading the team as the two point guards."

It's possible that both point guards will play together at times, allowing Paulus to play off the ball on offense and try to find open 3-pointers. While it benefits the Devils to have an extra ballhandler on the court, the onus still falls on Smith to get Duke into its motion offense and be its tactical leader.

It's something the sophomore is still learning to do.

"This is a good thing for Nolan," Krzyzewski said. "Nolan is very much a developing player. … This may give him an opportunity to play with Greg, play in place of him, and I still think of Nolan as a starter."