The ball movement issue looked like it had been solved after the loss to Arizona. So did the issue with, well, Duke’s defense in general.

Losses at Arkansas and Georgia Tech last week tell a different story.

“This is a time for us, for our team — we have a week of practice. We have to stick together,” coach Jon Scheyer said after last weekend’s loss in Atlanta. “We’ve got to get together even closer. As a coaching staff, there are some things we have to look at and probably make some changes.”

We’ll see what changes, and to which degree, have been implemented with Duke’s game against Charlotte on Saturday afternoon.

One change Duke wasn’t counting on is the ankle injury to Tyrese Proctor, suffered in the opening minutes against Georgia Tech. Scheyer said on his radio show this week that Proctor's injury is only a sprain, but didn't provide a timeline for his return.

“I haven’t liked the way we’ve shared the ball the last two games,” Scheyer said. “We had 11 assists, and we have a team, I believe, that should have close to 20 assists a game. It should come easier for us.”

The Blue Devils *did* average 20 assists against Michigan State, Bucknell and La Salle, with 61 assists on 90 field goals.

In three games since, Duke has 34 assists on 79 field goals.

It’s pretty simple defensively.

Duke has lost all three games that it’s allowed more than 1.0 points per possession; it’s won the five games that it’s held opponents under that number (per KenPom).

Last season, Duke was 8-8 when teams scored at least 1.0 points per possession; five of Duke’s wins in such instances came in the 10-game winning streak at the end of the season, when things had finally clicked into gear offensively for that team.

Per senior guard Jeremy Roach, it’s not the fault of Duke’s staff that things often break down on the defensive end.

“We’ve just got to do what we talked about in practice. There’s no carryover,” he said.

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Here’s what to know ahead of Saturday’s game:

Time: 2:15 p.m.

Location: Cameron Indoor Stadium.

TV: The CW.

Announcers: Tom Werme (play-by-play) and Mike Gminski (analyst).

Series; last meeting: Duke leads 6-1; Duke won 101-59 in 2009.

Records: Charlotte 5-3; Duke 5-3.

Stat to watch: 15-for-56.

That’s Duke’s combined 3-point shooting in the past three games.

Issues for the Blue Devils don’t start nor do they end with 3-point shooting. But things sure would be easier if they knocked down some 3s.

It’s supposed to be one of the strengths of this team. It looked to be developing in runaway wins against Bucknell and La Salle, when Duke was a combined 22-for-56.

Regression has seen the Blue Devils struggle to make shots in these last three games. Three of the 15 makes have come from T.J. Power, who’s only played 29 minutes. Kyle Filipowski is 1-for-11 in this stretch, Caleb Foster is 1-for-5 and Mark Mitchell is 0-for-5.

Matchup to watch: Charlotte’s Dishon Jackson (No. 1) vs. Duke’s centers.

Jackson isn’t going to be mistaken for Arizona’s Oumar Ballo any time soon, but it’ll be worth watching how Duke matches up against another large-bodied center.

The 6-11, 260-pound Jackson is in his first season at Charlotte after spending three years at Washington State. He’s coming off a career-high 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting against Stetson, along with seven rebounds.

Duke struggled to contain Ballo’s size. Trevon Brazile is Arkansas’ only legitimate size and he had 19 points and 11 rebounds. A week ago, freshman Baye Ndongo scored 21 points on 9-for-11 shooting against Duke.

The Blue Devils need some semblance of defense to come from the grouping of Filipowski, Ryan Young, Sean Stewart and Christian Reeves.

49er to watch: Guard Lu’Cye Patterson (No. 25).

Charlotte’s leading scorer (14.9 points per game) is in his second season with the 49ers after spending two seasons at Missouri State.

Patterson is coming off a nine-point game — only his second game in single figures in Charlotte’s last 14 — in which he had career-high eight assists. He’s 6-2, 210 pounds and skilled at getting to the free-throw line (48.9% free-throw rate, per KenPom).

Blue Devil to watch: Forward Mark Mitchell (No. 25).

The only games of Mitchell’s Duke career that he didn’t start are the ones he didn’t play — last season’s loss to Tennessee and this season’s opener against Dartmouth.

Until last weekend’s game at Georgia Tech.

Mitchell came off the bench against the Yellow Jackets after he had six points on 2-for-8 shooting against Arkansas. Per the ACC Network broadcast, Scheyer wanted to light a fire under Mitchell by taking him out of the starting lineup.

That came with … mixed results. Mitchell had 11 points and four rebounds — three offensive — in the loss. He was in the middle of the most-crucial part of the game, flushing home a dunk to put Duke up four late in the game, but drawing a technical for his reaction. Georgia Tech had a four-point possession to tie the game in the next 30 seconds.

Duke has to figure out a way to play offense with Mitchell struggling to make shots. He’s 1-for-13 on 3-pointers this season after making 19 of 54 last season.

What’s on deck: Duke has another interesting matchup against a decent mid-major on Tuesday night against Hofstra. The Pride is 6-2 and riding a five-game winning streak entering Saturday’s game at Saint Louis.

Charlotte has a week off and goes to Richmond next week.

KenPom prediction: Duke wins 75-62.

Devils Illustrated prognosis: It’s kind of the same thing that was written here a week ago.

Duke needs to show some fire.

Losses in the first two road games aren’t going to wreck the season. Only one of them counts against Duke’s ACC record, obviously. But the trends of losses at Arkansas and Georgia Tech — along with the first half against Southern Indiana — don’t exactly inspire the utmost confidence in the Blue Devils’ trajectory.

This is a game Duke needs to show some toughness.