Tag: 3-pointers

Marina Mabrey, Kayla McBride compete in WNBA All-Star events

Did you watch?

Notre Dame had some representation to tip off WNBA All-Star festivities over the next couple of days. Two of the three events held Friday in Phoenix featured that representation. Regrettably, it didn’t result in any hardware.

[autotag]Marina Mabrey[/autotag], who was traded from the Chicago Sky at her request earlier this week to the Connecticut Sun, competed in the Skills Challenge, the evening’s first event. You can’t see it that well in the video, but she fumbled a couple of times towards the end, costing her precious time:

The fumbles proved costly as she missed out on the final by two tenths of a second. All she could at that point was look to the 3-Point Contest, but she scored a contest-low 19 points:

Fellow former Irish standout [autotag]Kayla McBride[/autotag] of the Minnesota Lynx came right after her and scored enough points to stay alive:

However, she also didn’t advance to the final, so that was it for Notre Dame fans for the evening. The Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Gray wound up winning both events, becoming the first player to do so on the same night.

McBride and [autotag]Arike Ogunbowale[/autotag] will compete with the rest of the WNBA All-Stars in the All-Star Game on Saturday. They’ll be up against the U.S. Olympic team featuring [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] and [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag].

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Top 10 3-point shooters in Notre Dame women’s basketball history

Who has most hit from downtown in Irish history?

Several months back, former Notre Dame guard [autotag]Jackie Young[/autotag] advanced to the finals of the annual WNBA 3-Point Contest. But nobody was going to beat Sabrina Ionescu, whose final-round score of 37 was higher than even the highest score ever recorded in the NBA version of the contest. Almost immediately, many wondered how Ionescu would favor in a shootout with NBA 3-point king Stephen Curry.

This past NBA All-Star Weekend, fans got their wish. It was the highlight of the weekend with Curry needing the final rack to beat Ionescu, 29-26. There are hopes that something like this can continue next year and beyond, especially with women’s basketball increasing in popularity.

While we contemplate the future of women’s basketball and only can guess what it holds, we know who’s helped lay the groundwork for that future. Among them are the top 3-point shooters in Notre Dame history. Since 3-pointers are the latest thing to bring male and female basketball players together, let’s see who rounds out the top 10 for the Irish:

It only took James Harden one game to make as many 3-pointers as Ben Simmons and 76ers fans were so petty about it

This is just a hilariously petty stat from 76ers fans. It’s incredible.

Let’s start this off with a simple fact. Ben Simmons made five career 3-pointers with the Philadelphia 76ers over the course of five years with the team.

Another fact. James Harden just played his first game as a Philadelphia 76er and has already made 5 3-point shots as the team’s new point guard. That means it only took one game for James Harden to make as many 3-pointers as Simmons did as a 76er.

One game. Just one. And, look, it totally makes sense. Simmons is not a shooter. James Harden is. So, of course, this would happen at some point.

You know who let us know it happened immediately after it happened? 76ers Twitter. They could not WAIT for this moment, y’all. Look.

The pettiness here is just incredible. The funniest part about this is I’m not even sure if anyone remembers when Simmons hit those 5 3-pointers. Were they fullcourt heaves? Were they just spot-up shots? Did they come at the end of the shot clock? Who knows!

And if no one knows the answer to these questions, then did Simmons really hit those 3-pointers? Makes you think. It’s like the question about the tree falling in the woods without anyone around to hear it. Y’all know the one.

Anyway, Sixers fans were thrilled with this development. They actually have a point guard that can shoot now.

Steph Curry hit 105 3-pointers in a row and was still livid when the 106th wouldn’t drop

Amazing.

The Golden State Warriors shared an astonishing video the day after Christmas. In it, star guard Steph Curry is shown in the foreground, his feet just outside the 3-point arc a few yards from where it meets the baseline.

He proceeds to shoot and *make* 105 3-pointers over the span of five minutes. His miss comes around the 5:08 mark, and he turns to scream in frustration.

There’s a lot here, obviously. Lessons about just how precise an athlete’s body can become, and the work that leads them there. Also, raw look at the drive required to reach that point.

(The video shows 103 makes; he made two before the recording started.)

The first time through this video, you’ll probably watch incredulously. And then you might be bored at some points. But keep watching and you’ll find yourself noticing things; I’ve done a few run throughs where I’m just focused on his footwork. It’s mesmerizing.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr — who is actually the only player in NBA history to have a higher career 3-point shooting percentage than Curry (.4450 to .4429) — had a joke:

I’ve seen several people suggest this is the greatest sports accomplishment ever and I’m not here to tell them what to think about that, but I’d probably re-frame it a little bit to say: This is indeed absolutely breathtaking but also the sort of thing that elite athletes do as a matter of routine.

Perhaps we were lucky to catch a glimpse of Curry at his best here, when usually those moments happen in the midst of some quiet, grueling practice that few people are paying attention to. I often wonder: Did we get to witness Tiger Woods’ greatest round, or did it happen one afternoon when he just went to work out his game away from the cameras? Have we seen Serena Williams at her absolute pinnacle or did that moment come one day in a practice meant to push her through the rigors of Wimbledon?

We as sportswriters probably don’t do as good a job as we could of explaining just how hard athletes work, because that work occurs so incrementally. A few years ago Curry might have been stuck at 50 in a row, and nothing magic has occurred since then and now. He just kept shooting and fine-tuning.

The lesson here is that the next time you get frustrated with an athlete for not making it look easy in a game — Curry himself is 2-for-10 from 3 in games this year — don’t for a second believe that somehow you’d do better unless you happen to be putting in this sort of work, too.

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Why we still shouldn’t trust Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 3-point shooting

Giannis isn’t exactly a great three point shooter…yet

To say Giannis Antetokounmpo has never been the NBA’s best shooter is a  massive understatement. Once he picks up the ball and chucks it at the basket like a shot put, that’s a win fore the defense.

They’d rather him do that than have him gliding to the rim and casually dunking all over the defense. That strategy has worked against him relatively speaking — he did win the MVP last season, after all.

But that broken jumper is part of the reason why the Raptors were able to turn the tables on the Bucks midway through their playoff series last year. It was a legit weakness. At least until now, it seems.

That said… I still don’t really trust it.

Giannis is a better, but inconsistent, shooter

Defenses should still give Antetokounmpo all the cushion they need to stop him from getting to the rim. That’s where he’s most dangerous at, obviously.

But even on top of that, his 3-point shot isn’t prolific, by any means. He’s shooting 30 percent on 4.9 attempts per game. For a player of his caliber, that’s more than enough to give defenses pause. But a dive a bit deeper into the numbers says this shooting might not last.

Right now, Antetokounmpo’s three point field goals are coming after three to six dribbles according to NBA.com’s stats database.  He’s shooting 34.1% on those, which is just a dip below league average. That’s a good number and it gets even better. He hits 37.5 percent of his 3-pointers when he takes just one dribble.

Most of his makes from deep are pull-up shots like this one.

Those dribbles on his makes are used to establish his rhythm and make the shot all one smooth-ish motion. It’s still not a great jumper, but it’s good enough.

When he grabs the ball off the catch, he’s still lining the shot up and getting his feet right. When he catches the ball, it’s like he’s still loading up.

His shot has made some progress, but it’s still inconsistent enough that you’ll live with it as a result if you’re the defense. He only shoots 30 percent for a reason.

Defenses should still give him this shot

Here’s where the concern comes in: He’s only hitting 15.4 percent of his spot-up attempts and is only taking 0.9 threes per game without a single dribble. That’s typically the easiest three you can take — especially from the corner. Yet he doesn’t take them and, when he does, he doesn’t hit them.

There’s a theme here. Antetokounmpo isn’t a great stand-still shooter. He’s shot under 30 percent from 3-point range after not taking a single dribble in five of the seven years of his career. The only two he was above 30 percent were his rookie year when he shot 32 percent and the 2017-18 season when he shot 34.5 percent.

He’s got the ball in his hands for most of the game, so he’s largely able to pick and choose what shots from deep he’s going to take. But pull-up 3’s are hard, even when no one is guarding you.

The Bucks, as a team, are shooting 37.9 percent off of one dribble but 30 percent from deep off of three to six dribbles. The more they dribble, the worse the shot quality gets.

Giannis is becoming a threat from deep, but he’s not a great one. So while he’s shooting a bit more, it’s not quite a wrap for the rest of the NBA just yet. If he keeps progressing like this, though? Good luck.