What does Scal mean "it's not a lack of effort". Has he been watching this game???
I don't think it was really a lack of effort either. It was partly turnovers, and partly shot 27% from three, and partly that the Kings went 7-10 from three in the 4th quarter.
C?s give up any shot the Kings want in the 2nd half
Cs keep on taking lazy deep 3?s that have no shot at going in
Even the layups the Cs take are difficult shots
This team is mentally weak and losing to the pressure of repeating as title winners
The C's shot a grand total of 4 threes in the first 10 minutes of the fourth. Their problems tonight do not include taking too many threes.
I mean, but that's *exactly* the problem - their entire identity is around taking and making a high volume of threes, and when we can't do that, we don't know how to efficiently score, which also bleeds into our already lackluster defense this year. We only shot 41 tonight, 9 off of our regular average per game.
So, yeah, that's exactly the problem, and it's why the vast majority of teams have started employing the same exact defense against us - running us off the three point line, staying on shooters and giving up some twos, and the only exception is Tatum who they're really loading up on and bringing help against. We've simply not adjusted to this.
Problem is that's not really backed up by the data. The C's average 49.8 threes per game. Since December first they've average 48.3 per game, so only a very small drop. Still the most in the league.
In Oct/Nov the C's shot 37.8 % from three. Last year they shot 38.8% from three on the year. Since December 1st they've shot just 35%. So the issue isn't so much "they are being run off the line" as it's just a 40 day team wide shooting slump.
In addition they gotten slightly unlucky with opponent shooting in that stretch. Before December first they allowed 34.4% on opponent threes. Since December first its been 36.6%.
In other words they went from a +3.8% from three to a -1.6% from three on net before and after December first. By comparison they were +3.6% team vs opponent three point percentage last year, +3.2% the year before that.
Thats probably mostly bad luck, although I know people hate hearing that.