It's the shooting, stupid
Monday, November 5, 2007 | 05:46 PM ET
If the first week of the NBA season has anything to teach us, it's the simple lesson: teams that can't put the ball through the hoop with any kind of regularity are doomed, doomed, doomed.
The Chicago Bulls, with their enviable young roster, were the pre-season favourite of many to win the East but have so far lost their opening three games to hardly the most inspiring trio: New Jersey, Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Some would say their 0-3 start has more to do with the full court of press flinging Kobe Bryant rumours than anything their opponents throw at them. But their 37.8 per cent shooting, second worst in the league, is a more likely culprit, and it's a flaw particular to this team: like last year in their playoff series with Detroit, the Bulls can go frosty in a hurry.
The worst shooting team in the league, at 35.4 per cent, are the also disappointing and also 0-for-3 Washington Wizards. Leading - leading? - them in their futility is Gilbert Arenas, who - playing on a surgically repaired knee - has made a ghastly one of his seventeen three point attempts. The Miami Heat are the third Eastern Conference playoff squad to start the season 0-3, and while they are shooting an almost-good-by-comparison 40.4 per cent from the field, it's their shooting from the free throw line (less than 50 per cent) that is particularly foul.
No wonder the Toronto Raptors paid top dollar for Jason Kapono. In a league in which post play has surrendered to guard penetration and kickouts to open players camped at the three-point line, teams with a bevy of shooters tend to win. And the Raptors shooters, who through three games are nailing over 50 per cent of their threes, have to be considered among the league's best.
Not that you could tell from the first of Sunday's contest with Boston, when the Raptors ran their offence with all the poise of a group of kindergarten kids still high on candy from their Halloween trick or treating. In a playoff-intense contest, both teams found little luck on offence, with normally sure shooters Andrea Bargnani from Toronto and Paul Pierce from Boston shooting 2-for-13 and 4-for-17, respectively.
Then there was that Ray Allen fellow, who pushed his way to an open spot in the corner and nail a three-pointer to win the game in overtime, his seventh triple of the game. The oft-forgotten third wheel in Boston's much-hyped triumvirate that includes Kevin Garnett and Pierce, Allen proved to have the hottest hand on a day when only TJ Ford showed any scoring touch for Toronto.
That both teams were able to make a game of it on what wasn't their best night bodes well for their playoff intentions. As Toronto coach Sam Mitchell said after the game, referring to his team's 36.7 per cent shooting on the afternoon, "If you shoot 36 per cent you're not supposed to win."
It's a lesson the Bulls, Wizards and Heat are figuring out. In the still wide-open Eastern Conference, just about any team has a chance to make the playoffs. At the very least, a shooters chance.
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About the Author
Paul Jay has been writing about basketball for seven years, working as a basketball columnist for Rogers Sportsnet and writing for CBC Sports, Raptors Insider, Dose and appearing on air with Sportsnet and Raptors TV. In his 12 years in journalism, Paul has written features for some of the best publications in the country, including the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen, Saturday Night, Canadian Lawyer and This magazine. He first joined CBC.ca during the 2004 Athens Olympics and currently writes online for CBCNews.ca as a technology and science writer.
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