God I Love Danny Green

I found myself texting that message to quite a few friends after Carolina's great win over the Devils tonight in Durham.

There were so many great performances tonight by the Heels.   Let's start with the team itself.  

As they did in the final regular season game in 2005, Carolina held Duke scoreless - SCORELESS - down the stretch as they outscored the Blue Devils 10-0.  It was a great team effort, with lots of help defense.  

To wit, after Scheyer made it 66-68 with just under 6 minutes left the Heels didn't score for 3 minutes - but did not panic. With 3 minutes left Scheyer drove one more time trying to make it a four-point game but my new deity - Danny Green - rotated over and blocked the shot.  

From that point on the Heels played great Carolina basketball; they were smart, kept their cool and were methodical down the stretch on the offensive end. In the last three minutes there were just so many huge huge plays by the Heels.

Start with Ellington's driving basket to tie it at 68.  Carolina wanted to get the ball to Hansbrough, but when Wayne realized that Tyler was not open he made a great decision and a great drive past a great Hansbrough screen for the big bucket.  

After Henderson missed a contested shot we saw more smart Carolina basketball on the ensuing possession.   Again, Carolina looked down low. But Lawson could not get it to Psycho T but did find a cutting Marcus Ginyard. Ginyard missed the shot, but Green kept the ball alive and Hansbrough just took the ball from Singler for the put back and a 2-point lead that restored order in the universe.

That may have been the play of the game, and highlighted Carolina's dominance on the boards.

Trailing by two, Duke came out of a time out only to see Paulus miss a 3-point shot that was taken way too early in the possession.  But you can't fault Paulus for having the stones to take the shot and for carrying Duke the entire night.

Carolina got the ball back and added insult to Paulus' injury.  Roy called the same play he ran in February 2007 when the Heels won in Cameron - clear it out for Lawson and let him blow by Paulus. Instead of scoring he got fouled and make both free throws for a 72-68 lead.  

   

If Hansbrough's put back was the biggest play of the night, the second biggest was Lawson's steal after he knocked down the two free throws.  Again, it was more great team defense.  After Henderson tried to dribble around Hansbrough, Lawson came over to steal the ball. 

Ty immediately pushed the ball up court, but missed the lay up.  But if you run the floor good thing happen. Danny the Diety did, and his tip in of the Lawson miss gave Carolina a six point lead.  

Just as Lawson followed his free throws with a steal, Green followed his tip in with a big block of Scheyer's lay up on the other end.  Green was simply spectacular tonight - on offense and defense, in the first half and the second. 

Duke got the ball back only to have Scheyer's three blocked by Hansbrough - one of 15 FIFTEEN - blocked shots by the Heels.  Carolina's rebounding, defense and blocked shots were three of the many great things the Heels did in Durham tonight.

After the block Carolina got the ball up the court quickly, with crisp diagonal passes from Lawson to Ginyard to Ellington to Green for an emphatic dunk and an 8 point lead with 25 seconds left.

Duke 'answered' with a Nelson air ball and the game was over, though Green got one more block against Paulus with 10 seconds left.

Just an excellent game with great plays by the entire Tar Heel squad.

Everyone played great and contributed.  I've already mentioned Green, Hansbrough, Ellington and Lawson.  But how about Q's big three to regain the lead at 60-57 after Scheyer had tied it with 9 minutes left?   Or Thompson, who finished with 5 blocks, 7 points and 9 boards, plus made two big free throws in the second half?

Some of the stat lines for the Heels are just as gaudy.  Hansbrough's 16 points and 15 boards, Lawson's 10 points, and Ellington's 16.

But the gaudiest and best line belongs to the player who won this game for the Heels, my man Danny Green. He goes to Durham, comes off the bench and finishes with 18 points, 8 boards and 7 blocks.  He got the Heels off to the great start in the first half - including a freak-nasty in-your-grill dunk over Paulus - and closed the game with big plays on both ends of the floor.  God I love Danny Green.   

A Few More Thoughts

• Heels finish the season undefeated on the road. Pretty phenomenal, and a tribute to Roy but mainly to the players for developing a toughness that was not there last year.
• Krzyzewski once again has a losing lifetime record versus Carolina (14-24 vs. Dean, BTW), and the Heels have beaten Duke three times in a row at Cameron.
• Nothing like defeating Duke at Duke, in front of all the right-wing entitlement boobs.  Take that Richard Nixon, Ken Starr, Elizabeth Dole, etc. etc.
• That said, here's to Greg Paulus.  The guy has made himself a player.  Hard to knock Duke's squad - in Paulus, Henderson, Nelson, Scheyer, and Singler that is a ton of talent, and I haven't mentioned perhaps their most talented player Nolan Smith.  Another testament to Carolina's defense, toughness and smarts in defeating a team like that on their home floor.
• As talented as they are - and it was a great great college basketball game - the Dukies looked gassed and really bothered by the Heels down the stretch. Whereas the Heels methodically imposed their will in the last four minutes, Duke looked tight and tired. Paulus' missed three, Singler's missed three and a big miss by Henderson at the 5 minute mark all point to a tired team that may have expended all their energy in simply making it a tie ball game.

Of course, Carolina had a lot to do with their fatigue and general discombobulatedness.  The Heels played a great overall game with contributions from everyone and everywhere on the floor.  What a great win, led by my man Danny the Deity.

Go Heels!