3-point maven Korver is a key to Cavs’ hopes
Kyle Korver is slumping. Can’t hit water from a boat.
Can’t make the shots the Cleveland Cavaliers signed him to make.
His initials look like the strikeout symbols saluting a great pitcher in baseball. One “K” after another marching across the upper deck.
In Korver’s past 23 threepoint attempts, 17 Ks would be there. That’s only 26.1 percent success behind the arc.
In their 113-91 loss to open the NBA Finals, the Cavs got only 24 points from anyone but the Big Three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. They got none from Korver, who is playing in his first Finals.
“Once the ball went up Thursday, everything was OK,” said Korver. “The biggest thing was the long wait. But look around here (at the media horde), this is amazing for a practice.”
Game 2 is in Oakland on Sunday night.
In the five games against Boston in the NBA Eastern Conference finals and the ragged opening loss in the Finals to Golden State, Korver has shot nothing but threes.
When he goes into the lane, Korver, who describes himself as having “long legs, but not the most athletic guy,” faces defenders who are almost as sturdy as a basket stanchion and nearly as large.
Speaking of stanchions, the one that supports the backboard at Boston’s TD Garden blocked the view of the lane from my seat in the fan-surrounded press table in the East finals. But plays in the corner near the Cavs’ bench unfolded before press table occupants like an open book.
Usually, Korver is running off picks and trying to free himself from defenders’ hands grabbing at him.
But this time, he idled in the corner on the “$9 Million Board,” as basketball people call it. It is the hot spot where shooters are well paid to stand and deliver a three after a drive-and-kick pass.
In a sport in which quickness matters almost as much as height, Korver made a startand-stop move, suddenly bursting behind a screen J.R. Smith stepped in to set, then screeched to a halt. A hard, short pass, probably from LeBron James, maybe from Deron Williams (that stanchion thing again) was already on its way.
Only outside shooters with ball-handling brilliance, such as the Cavs’ Kyrie Irving or the Warriors’ Stephen Curry, receive accolades for their hands. Actually, NBA spot-up shooters are the equal of NFL punters, another overlooked group, when it comes to making a clean catch of a hard snapped or thrown ball with a margin of error that permits only the briefest of bobbles.
Marcus Smart of the Celtics was already coming around the screen to contest the shot as Korver fluidly leaped and let a three-pointer go that cleared the straining Smart’s hand by inches. Nothing but net.
How would ordinary human beings ever score a single basket in a sport with such minute tolerances for error? Professional athletes are not like you or me. It’s not even close.
The odd part was that in Korver’s 0-for-3 opener against Golden State, each of the looks was clean, and not the cluttered glimpses he often has of the rim.
Is it possible, as occasionally happens with Smith, that Korver was simply too open? Or is he struggling with his confidence?
“A big part of shooting is confidence,” Korver said. “I believe if you make one shot, on the next shot you’re more aggressive and will shoot a better shot. I have always been jealous of guys like Kyrie and LeBron who get the ball so much. They can find their touch, then lose it, then find it again, because they control the shots.
“I play off the ball more. It’s a different type of game, but a team needs both types of players.”
The open-shot misses were an aberration. So is Korver’s slump.
Right?