Tag: 3-point shooting

Celtics stats snapshot: live by the 3 vs. Magic, die by 3 vs. Knicks

Even if it works sometimes, an over-reliance on the 3-pointer can be a problem.

In the Boston Celtics first nine games of the season, the team averaged 34.5 3-point attempts per game, but — perhaps fueled by considerable success in their tenth game of the season, a 124 – 97 win vs. the Orlando Magic — boosted their treys attempted by roughly a third in their next two games.

And while the Magic couldn’t hang with the lethal sniping the Celtics brought to bear on Friday, Jan. 15, they fell back to earth with a thud after trying it again vs. the New York Knicks. From blowout to blown out, the old maxim was never truer that one lives by the 3, and one dies by it — at least when it becomes such a disproportional part of a team’s typical approach.

With 42 and 46 attempts respectively in Boston’s last two contests, the former made sense given how well it was falling against Orlando. But for whatever reason, the Celtics kept launching deep jumpers against New York with little success.

It was a recipe for disaster noted by many around the Celtics media sphere, perhaps explained in part by Kemba Walker’s return and the early start time — but it’s also a dangerous habit that needs quick excision.

Given it produced a loss of historic proportions, the sting is likely enough to prevent Boston from overusing their 3-point shot so egregiously any time soon.

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Celtics coach Stevens speaks on Boston’s perimeter defense vs Raptors

The Boston Celtics have held the Toronto Raptors to just over 25% from 3 over their first two games of the second-round series between them.

Over their first two games of their 2020 Eastern Conference Semifinals series, the Boston Celtics have managed to hold the defending champion Toronto Raptors to just over 25% from 3-point range.

The Raptors, for their part, have been a very solid team as far as shooting 3-pointers go in 2019-20 to date, having collectively connected on 37.4% of their treys this season.

Asked his opinion on the job the Celtics have done in this series guarding the perimeter in light of that exceptional success over two games, the Celtics coach was — as he always is — guarded in his praise.

“We just try to close out as hard as we can, and try to be there on catches as much as we can, but it’s easier said than done.

“I think they’ve missed a few open ones, but hopefully we’ve got it hard enough that those open ones just don’t feel as comfortable as normal if you are there. But, both teams are good at closing out, both teams are good, playing with great intensity to the close out. And, still, in this league guys still make tough ones, but that’s all we’re trying to do.”

“There’s some schemes and things that you try to be good at throughout the year,” he added, “because you know the value of the lay up and the 3.”

Boston isn’t likely to continue with this level of success shutting down the Raptors 3-point shooting in Game 3.

But the fact that the Celtics have found a way to push Toronto out of its comfort zone by taking away the team’s transition game may be at least as much of a factor as the Celtics’ usual perimeter defense is.

We’ll find out soon enough, with tip-off scheduled for 6:30 p.m Eastern Time this Thursday, September 3rd evening.

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The Lakers have a shooting problem and, yes, it’s cause for concern

The Lakers need to be better.

The Lakers are sitting pretty as the number one seed in the Western Conference right now, but everything isn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Los Angeles.

Their loss on Wednesday night to the Oklahoma City Thunder put a giant spotlight on their biggest weakness — their shooting. They shot a terrible 5-37 from 3-point range in the 105-86 loss.

That’s an extremely terrible shooting night for any team in the NBA, but unfortunately for the Lakers that’s been the norm during their stay in the NBA’s bubble.

Overall, they’ve shot the ball extremely poorly and it’s spreading throughout the rest of their offense.

Yes, they’re only three games in. No, this isn’t enough to say they can’t win an NBA championship. But this is absolutely a cause for concern. Here’s why.

This is closer to the norm than not for the Lakers

There are two things that make a team great at shooting threes — volume and percentage.

Some teams (looking at you, Rockets) hoist up so many threes that, if they just get to the league average mark of 36% or even hit slightly below it, it’s a big plus for their offense.

Other teams don’t shoot as many in volume, but they’re so good at making them that it ends up being the same plus. The Miami Heat (38% from 3-point range) are a perfect example of this.

The Lakers don’t fall into either category. They don’t take a lot and they don’t make a lot, relatively speaking. Here’s where they stand:

  • 23rd in 3-point makes with 11 per game
  • 22nd in 3-point attempts at 31.6 per game
  • 23rd in 3-point percentage at 34.8% per game.

They’re just not a very good shooting team. That’s what they’ve been all year.  Here’s the problem, though.

In the bubble, they’ve gotten worse

The sample is extremely small, but the Lakers are easily the worst shooting team in the NBA’s bubble.

They only make 23% of their threes which is good for dead last. However, they’re shooting them a bit more at 34 attempts per game so far. None of that is good.

On top of that, they lost one of their best 3-point shooters this season in Avery Bradley who hit 36% of his threes. His replacements in Dion Waiters and J.R. Smith are shooting a combined 3-23 from deep and Danny Green can’t hit the broad side of a barn right now.

Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Anthony Davis are the only Lakers shooting above 30% from deep right now with Kuzma (46.7%) being the best of them.

Their defense can’t fix this one

The Lakers still have a top three defense in the league, but they’re going to need more to get out of this jam. A great defense can overcome a mediocre offense — not an awful one.

Their 95.5 offensive rating is dead last in the league by far. For context, it’s just about seven points worse than the winless Washington Wizards at 102.4. And they don’t have Bradley Beal or Davis Bertans, who are their two best players.

Now, it’s early. And things can change. LeBron James will play better. Danny Green and J.R. Smith will start hitting.

But right now? That’s straight up awful and the Lakers should be better than that. Period.

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