It's the D, stupid.
And, that's the only thing carrying UCLA, who unfortunately does not have an O. The 27 points was not a fluke. It's courtesy of a plain jane vanilla Mick O!
Amd. you bet Mara shouldn't be playing in a game like this, but Kyle is a scratch in this game so you gotta do so or Bilodeau is going to bust a lung. Why am I singling out Mara? Becuz his D is atrocious To put it in a nutshell and read carefully, his O is better than his D!!! The game high scorer, Ike, is eating his lunch.
UCLA is dictating pace, which can't be overemphasized since that rarely happens to Zaga and Nembhard. And, the sole silver lining on UCLA's faux O is they are taking the air out of the ball on Mick's useless weaves and isos.
Bilodeau is having one of those days, but fortunately UCLA's D is carrying him until he becomes copacetic with Ballmer's Intuit. A big part of UCLA's O drought continues to be Andrews who has ZERO points and ZERO assists!. Cronin is basically signalling to the Bruin Nation: "it's DA or bust".
Kobe continues to be in that same dark ZERO swerve on O, which has fortuitously opened things up for Step who has chipped in big for us in the 1H.
Don't look now but we're being outshot 41% to 29%, albeit we're slightly holding a lead in rebounds and turnovers. Thing is, in the 2H, even without Battle, it's Few vs Mick on O, so this will be a major challenge.
GO BRUINS!