LOS ANGELES — Arron Afflalo was not supposed to guard Marcus Williams.
That chore should have gone to forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, whose 6-foot-8-inch frame and ropy arms would have better gotten in the way.
But Mbah a Moute injured his knee Thursday, preventing him from playing Saturday.
Alfred Aboya, Mbah a Moute's backup, practiced as if he was going to guard Williams, the Pac-10's leading scorer. Being the same height and within 5 pounds of Mbah a Moute, it made sense.
But that did not happen, either. UCLA coach Ben Howland was not going to take any chances against Williams, whose 18.5 points per game led the Pac-10 entering Saturday's game.
The same Williams had led the UA in scoring three games in a row, totaling 80 points.
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"We had originally talked about matching up our four man, but he's their leading scorer, the leading scorer in the Pac-10," Howland said. "I thought it was critical we put our best on-ball defender on him, especially in light of the fact Luc was not able to play today."
Afflalo took on the task. He held Williams to 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting.
"That's the key matchup, him playing great defense," Howland said.
You would think Afflalo — a deadeye shooter who led the Bruins with 22 points — would have shied away from the challenge when he found out Friday, content to be the star scorer.
Maybe he'd be afraid of the possibility he would end up on "SportsCenter," his white No. 4 jersey on the underside of a Top Plays dunk.
Not Afflalo. He happily volunteered for the root-canal assignment.
"Defense, for him, is a personal thing," Aboya said. "Everytime he steps on the court, his first goal is to shut down the other team's best guy."
That is exactly what Afflalo did.
"He's the leading scorer in the conference," said the Compton-raised junior, who gave up 2 inches to Williams. "That's just a challenge for me. I like taking that challenge.
"I just want to hold that guy down. My whole thing is, if he doesn't score his average, I'm scoring it. It's like a point for me."
It's a lesson Afflalo said he learned two years ago. He started every game as a freshman, but needed to find a way to stay in the game — guards Jordan Farmar and Josh Shipp were his same age.
"That was my way of earning minutes," he said. "It kinda stuck with me, and now I'm taking a lot of pride in it."
He was named the team's Outstanding Defensive Player that year, and started building a résumé that now ranks him among the most complete players in the country.
He scored eight of the team's first 12 points Saturday.
"I want to be good offensively, like most kids do," he said. "Defense is easier; it's all effort, less skill.
"You can become skillful at it, but it's strictly effort and a want, just like rebounding."
Playing a smaller lineup, the Bruins were out-rebounded 37-33. It was not for a lack of trying.
"He takes pride in playing defense," Aboya said. "That's how he is, trying to match up with the other team's best player, day in and day out. We kinda feed off him."
