Considering Syracuse played without their leading scorer & the game was in doubt until the last 5 min I would not exactly think the game elevates Duke at all.
All the Zion slobber gets on my nerves. He did not take one single shot outside the lane. 6 of his 13 were dunks. Don't get me wrong, he played great but the reaction is absolutely nauseating
The problem is, until someone can stop that, it's pretty remarkable. But Syracuse was not equipped for that. As you said without their best play maker, and Chuckw had the most absurd foul trouble I've seen this year. 3 fouls in like the first 8 minutes? Picks up his 4th within a few minutes of the 2nd half. Syracuse was two men down, and an already bad team.
What this tells me is that Zion is pretty legit, but Duke still has a lot of flaws.