3-point shots boil down to quality, not quantity
LOS ANGELES — The sound is as unmistakable as it is frequent, a reaction more satisfying for the Rockets than turning a road crowd quiet.
The Rockets’ 3s fall. The numbers grow. The scene is familiar to the most prolific 3-point shooting traveling circus in NBA history.
It could be Ryan Anderson taking aim to James Harden’s left or Eric Gordon on his right. It could be Trevor Ariza or Pat Beverley in the corners. It doesn’t matter. On nights the Rockets have it going, as they did in
Wednesday’s 122-103 onslaught against the Clippers in Staples Center, the sound of the home crowd’s frustration is as clear as the box scores to come.
The groans begin before the shot is taken, as if fans cannot believe the Rockets’ 3-point
shooters were left open to take another. On the most prolific nights they grow louder, punctuated by calls to “get on him.” But that is the point.
The Rockets’ 3-point offense is often described by their willingness to fire away and Mike D’Antoni’s determination to push the envelope beyond all precedence, but the success of the offense is getting that many good shots.
“We’re going to shoot them,” Harden said. “That’s what we do. If they’re open shots, they’re good looks for us.’’
D’Antoni insists he barely glances at how many 3s the Rockets take per game and then just out of curiosity.
The Rockets’ nine games with 20 3-pointers is not only an NBA record, but is four more than the rest of the NBA combined. But D’Antoni’s interest remains in the quality not quantity of 3s taken, as stunning as the numbers might be.
D’Antoni’s curious take
“You know, I really don’t ever look at how many 3s we take,” D’Antoni said. “I don’t know. I look because I’m curious, not because, ‘Oh shoot, we got 50. That’s too many. Oh shoot, we’ve got 20, that’s not enough.’
“Nah, I just look at it (and determine if) each play, did we do the right thing? Are the guys in the right spots? (Are) we taking 20 3s because we’re not getting to our spots or were we like passing up shots?
“That, I look at, and say ‘OK, we took 70 3s, and we forced about 10 and we just flung ‘em up.’ Well yeah, we don’t want to do that. If they’re good shots that come out of the context of what we’re doing, I don’t know if there’s a limit or not.”
For now, to D’Antoni, there is no limit if the Rockets can get that many good looks. The Rockets were averaging 39.8 3-point attempts when he directed them to average 50 per game for the remainder of the season. They have averaged 51.5 per game since.
On Wednesday, after the Rockets hit their 20 3-pointers before the third quarter had ended, pushing their lead to 30, he barely shrugged.
“That’s what we do,” D’Antoni said. “We just added Lou Williams. That’s going to be another eight or nine. That’s just the way we play. We’re going to play that way. We do that really well. We’re just going to milk that the best we can.”
The Rockets have made 912 3-pointers with 20 games remaining, by far the most in league history through 62 games and just 65 from the NBA record the Warriors set last season. They have 32 games with at least 15 3-pointers, seven games more than the Warriors’ record.
Still, the Rockets insist that the better they execute their offense, the less extraordinary the abundance of 3-pointers feels.
‘It’s fun basketball’
“You don’t really realize how many we’re taking until you actually hear because it’s so naturally the way we play,” Anderson said. “It’s fun basketball when you have guys you trust. The next guy is going to make the shot or we’re going to make the right play.”
That starts with Harden and the centers in the middle of the floor, forcing the defense to surrender the lane or leave shooters to protect the paint. As one scout described his play chart Wednesday: “Middle pick-and-roll, middle pickand-roll, middle pick-androll.”
To the Rockets, it’s not about what they run, but how they run it. And if executed correctly, there might not be a point at which so many 3s become too many.
“Well, we’ll see,” D’Antoni said with a laugh about the barrage of 3s sure to come. “You know, I don’t know. It just seems like the more we (take), the better we play. So, so far, I don’t think we’ve hit that limit.”