Just call Nolan Smith Mr. Facilitator.

Smith bounced back from an 0-for-8 performance against Bradley last week to post a game-high 22 points along with five assists as he facilitated No. 1 Duke’s 84-47 thumping of Saint Louis (3-4) Saturday afternoon. And no one was more excited than the point guard he replaced.

“He’s the best teammate,” Smith said of injured freshman Kyrie Irving. “He’s upbeat, he’s talking to me all the time, making me laugh on the court, which he shouldn’t be doing, since I’m trying to stay serious, but I like it. He’s a great teammate.

“Both of us talk about how we’re just guards. We can score, we can run the team, so he’s calling me PG and facilitator, just kind of teasing.”

Irving had plenty of opportunities to call out Smith in the first half. The senior led the way with 15 points, including a thunderous dunk he took straight to the hole from just beyond the 3-point arc that brought the crowd into the game and pushed Duke’s advantage to 19-6. As a result, Billikens’ coach Rick Majerus was forced to call his second timeout in a span of just over two minutes.

Majerus’s team, which only has nine scholarship players, was at one point playing four freshmen and a walk-on. He said after the game that Saint Louis often has to play four-on-four in practice due to a lack of available players.

“We didn’t plan to play this game with what we had,” Majerus said. “I hope we were able to give them some kind of a little bit of a challenge, at least for Mike [Krzyzewski’s] sake.”

The Billikens did give Duke (10-0) a chance to work on its defense, which Smith said has been the Blue Devils’ main focus in practice. Duke’s goal has been to hold each of its opponents in this four-game December stretch—against Bradley, Saint Louis, Elon and UNC-Greensboro—to under 50 points said freshman Josh Hairston. The Blue Devils’ defense was especially stifling in the first half, limiting the Billikens to 16 points while forcing them to commit 11 fouls and 14 turnovers.

“We know in order to win championships and win the big games, it has to be done with defense,” Smith said. “The scoring is going to come, we have so many scorers, so defense has been the one thing we are trying to stress.”

Playing against Saint Louis also gave the Blue Devils the flexibility to try a variety of lineups to find the best way to replace the injured Irving. Smith said that Krzyzewski has told him to emulate the way Jon Scheyer played the point guard position last year, bringing the ball down the court and looking for one of Duke’s many options while still setting himself up to receive the ball back and score.

Freshman Tyler Thornton and sophomore Seth Curry also took turns at the point in the second half to get Smith off the ball, with Thornton providing suffocating defense and also dishing out four assists in a season-high 14 minutes. Both Thornton and fellow freshman Hairston entered the game in the middle of the first half, much earlier than in previous games.

Curry, who has been the primary ball-handler in the past, had 11 points, including a 3-of-5 performance beyond the arc, and six assists. Curry said he struggled earlier this season adjusting to his role as a shooting guard and now will be able to go back to playing a more comfortable position.

“I thought he did a great job today, not only having the 11 points and making some shots, but he gets six assists,” associate head coach Chris Collins said. “You don’t necessarily think that when you think about Seth. You think about a shooter and putting it in the hole.”

Collins subbed in for Krzyzewski, who had to leave to attend to a family situation, in the postgame press conference.

One aspect of Duke’s game that will be different without Irving is its transition game. The Blue Devils posted only nine fast break points, down from an average of 17 with Irving at the helm in the team’s first three games against mid-major opponents, not counting the contest against Butler.

“When Kyrie went out, everyone’s roles changed,” said Hairston, who contributed 12 points in 15 minutes, both season highs. “We’ve had to adjust to not only the speed of the game but just playing with each other. Everyone feels comfortable now, but our game has slowed down. And so everybody has to be ready to play.”