NBA tracking on Miami 3-point attempts in Game 2:
Very tight defense (0-2 feet): 1-1
Tight defense (2-4 feet): 1-5
Open (4-6 feet): 6-14
Wide open (6+ feet): 15-23
No Joe, they were not contested as you said.
So this tracking is saying that MIA had 37 3PAs that were either open or wide open (and made 21)? That doesn't sound right. The defense did not look that bad to me, but I wasn't measuring how close the defender was.
What was the tracking for BOS 3PA?
The thing with these stats is there is a confounder — players generally don’t take threes if they aren’t open. The substantial majority of attempted threes in virtually every game are open or wide open — I’d bet 70% or more. Miami made a higher percentage on those than they normally do, and they started out hot so they kept taking them. We made a lower percentage than we normally do, and we started out cold, so we took fewer and got away from our usual offense.
I added the BOS attempt summary (MIA defense) after the original post:
Very tight defense (0-2 feet): 0-0
Tight defense (2-4 feet): 1-6
Open (4-6 feet): 10-17
Wide open (6+ feet): 2-9
It is exactly as Celtics2012 says. Most of BOS 3PA were open or wide open too. 79% for BOS, 86% for MIA. MIA had more open/wide open attempt overall and a high percentage of the total, but to say that MIA shots were all open and BOS shots were defended is not accurate. And MIA hit way above their norms for percent made. BOS didn't
I expect that there will be some adjustment or more emphasis on defending the 3, but I don't expect or believe there needs to be any radical change in the defense. My adjustment would be to pressure the ball earlier, make it harder for them to get into their set. They are still going to get open and wide open 3PAs, every team does, but the harder you make them work to get to the shot, the less likely they are to make the shot.