With a frontcourt comprised of big men like Brook Lopez and Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks were usually able to protect the rim in Sunday’s game against the smaller Houston Rockets.
But it came at a clear cost in the 120-116 Houston win (box score).
At just 22 feet from the basket yet still worth three points, corner 3-pointers have long been regarded as one of the NBA’s most efficient shots. While Lopez and Antetokounmpo were usually able to turn back All-Star guards James Harden and Russell Westbrook on drives, their commitment to rim protection routinely left Houston’s small-ball centers (P.J. Tucker and Jeff Green) wide open in the corners.
…but what if that "center" is actually a wing?
Well, Milwaukee still did the same thing. Stop shots at the rim and give up the open three to the "center" — even though that center was in the corner.
Watch Brook Lopez here: he sells out to stop the drive, leaving Jeff Green. pic.twitter.com/EWIMxsjDKa
— Cleaning The Glass (@cleantheglass) August 4, 2020
Tucker and Green combined for six made 3-pointers. As a team, Houston hit 21 treys in 61 attempts (34.4%), as compared to just 9-of-35 (25.7%) by the Bucks. That made for a massive 36-point differential.
Combine the 3-point math with the quick hands of Houston’s smaller lineup, which forced 22 Milwaukee turnovers on defense while only committing nine of their own, and it was too much to overcome — even with the Bucks outrebounding the smaller Rockets by 29!
So what happened in the battle of rim protection vs. three pointers?
HOU took fewer shots at the rim than any of their games this year…but rained threes from the corners.
In fact, no team has taken a higher percentage of their shots from the corners in a game in *13 years*. https://t.co/SHApnBvEGe
— Cleaning The Glass (@cleantheglass) August 4, 2020
Per Cleaning The Glass, Houston took less shots at the rim against Milwaukee than in any of their other games in the 2019-20 season. However, they made up for that by taking the highest percentage of shots from the corners of any NBA team in a single game in 13 years.
Cleaning The Glass is a subscription analytics website by Ben Falk, who worked in the NBA as vice president of basketball strategy with Philadelphia and basketball analytics manager for Portland.
Tucker and Green combined to take 19(!) corner threes. The Rockets overall shot 42% on their 26 corner attempts.
That (along with a very low turnover rate) is how you win when barely taking shots at the rim, making only 29% of non-corner threes, and getting pounded on the glass.
— Cleaning The Glass (@cleantheglass) August 4, 2020
Of Houston’s 91 field-goal attempts during the game, 26 of them (28.6%) were corner 3-pointers. Nineteen of those, or 73.1%, were from Tucker and Green. And while Houston had a fairly average overall shooting performance at roughly 34% on 3-pointers, they were significantly more efficient on those corner treys at 42%, per Cleaning The Glass.
That’s how the Rockets were able to defeat the larger Bucks despite the enormous rebounding discrepancy and a below-average shooting performance (29%) on 3-pointers not from the corners.
Should the two title contenders eventually meet again in the 2020 NBA Finals, it could well be a storyline worth remembering.
[lawrence-related id=35473,35404]
[vertical-gallery id=35364]