UCLA knows their magic number on defense is 40%

If UCLA needed a motto, WD-40 might work just fine.

When their defense holds an opponent under 40% shooting, the Bruins are 11-0. And it’s been happening a lot lately.

UCLA has held five consecutive opponents and eight of its last 10 under that threshold, perhaps the biggest reason the Bruins have won five games in a row and nine of 10 heading into their game against Stanford on Thursday night at Maples Pavilion.

“We know that’s our foundation and that’s what we have to revolve things around, stopping other teams,” UCLA guard Lazeric Jones said.

Defensively, the Bruins are no longer Malcolm Lee and the minnows. Other players have become factors, particularly forwards Tyler Honeycutt and Reeves Nelson. Honeycutt leads the Pacific 10 Conference with 47 blocked shots, helping the Bruins lead the conference with 5.6 blocks per game.

Nelson held USC’s Nikola Vucevic to a seven-for-16 shooting performance during UCLA’s 64-50 victory on Feb. 2 and then harassed St. John’s forward Justin Brownlee into a one-for-nine shooting nightmare three days later. His strong defense continued last week during a home sweep of the Oregon schools.

Collectively, the Bruins rank third in the Pac-10 in defensive field-goal percentage, holding their opponents to 41.6% shooting. Over the last five games, that figure has dipped to 37.5%.

Part of the reason for the improvement, Lee said, is that his defensive prowess has become contagious.

“My teammates kind of feel that, well, if Malcolm’s putting all this time into shutting a guy down, it’s going to take all of us to do it” to be the best team possible, Lee said. “We all kind of buy into that.”

USC Coach Kevin O’Neill said UCLA’s defense was much improved this month in the second meeting between the cross-town rivals. The Trojans had won the first matchup, shooting 46.3% during a 63-52 triumph last month.

“They’re just getting older,” O’Neill said. “A lot of these guys have played major minutes over the last two years now.… They play with a lot of energy and I think they’re going to improve more as the season goes on.”

Man of many talents

In 24 games, UCLA’s top NBA prospect has led his team in scoring … once.

That’s OK, one NBA executive said of Honeycutt, because the sophomore’s ability to do everything else makes him as coveted as his ability to splurge for points. One mock draft has Honeycutt projected as the 15th pick overall.

“He’s got size, a great feel for the game, an improving stroke and he peppers the stat sheet,” said the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss college players.

Honeycutt leads the Pac-10 in blocks (1.9 per game) and ranks fifth in rebounding (8.0) in addition to 16th in scoring (12.5). Though Honeycutt conceded that he needed to be more aggressive in taking open shots, he also said he enjoyed helping the Bruins in other ways.

“I’m always going to do anything I can do to help our team win,” Honeycutt said. “If it’s me not scoring as many points as I was in the beginning of the season, we’ve been winning lately just me going out there and trying to get 13 rebounds or eight blocked shots or six assists or whatever I need to do.

“It’s obviously been working, so why change?”

ben.bolch@latimes.com