[h1]Warriors rely on the three-pointer[/h1]
By Mark Emmons
Mercury News
Article Launched:�03/27/2008 01:45:07 AM PDT
The way Baron Davis tells it, the Warriors rarely come racing down the court intending to hoist a three-point shot. It's not by design. Don Nelson doesn't call for one from the bench.
It sort of just happens.
Again and again and again.
"It's so enticing," Davis said. "We're all obsessed with it, and we know we can get on a roll. We've been doing it all season, so why stop now?"
That obsession helps explain why the Warriors are on pace to break the NBA record for three-pointers attempted in a season. The NBA's highest-scoring team, the Warriors have become the Costco of the NBA.
They shoot in bulk.
And launching nearly 27 three-point shots per game, the Warriors say, actually is
disciplined in their frenetic, run-and-gun offensive style that makes them such a compelling high-wire act.
"Absolutely," Stephen Jackson said. "If Coach doesn't complain about it, then shooting them is definitely the right thing to do. And Coach hasn't said anything to us yet."
That's because there is a method to the madness.
The record for three-pointers attempted is 2,155 - an average of 26.28 per game - by the 2002-03 Boston Celtics. Thus far this season, the Warriors have put up 1,881 three-pointers, an average of 26.87 per game.
In the parlance of playground gunners everywhere, the Warriors have no conscience.
It's easy to get carried away, said Davis, who leads the team in three-point tries with 448.
"Any
time you play the way we do, going up and down the court, you can get caught up in the moment," he said."If you're making a run, the crowd gets into it and you just get that feeling. It can be hard to control that urge."
Then it's bombs away.
When they're falling, Warriors' games can be a breath-taking blur. Take Sunday's 115-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. Jackson, who has attempted 425 three-pointers despite missing nine games, hit two in the final 38.5 seconds of the thrilling win.
Those kinds of clutch shots have become a Jackson specialty. ("Jack's been shooting lights out," Davis said.) And the three-pointer is the Warriors' knockout punch.
"That team takes a lot of air out of your sails with the way they run and that barrage of three-point shooting," Milwaukee Coach Larry Krystkowiak said after the Warriors sank 15 of 22 tries in a 30-point win this season.
Although it often looks as if the Warriors' offensive strategy is little more than first guy down the court gets to chuck it, Nelson makes clear there is strategy involved.
"It's just part of the way that we have to play," Nelson said.
He has his reasons.
• Risk-reward. A longer shot should be a tougher shot. But Nelson notes that good ball movement often leads to a wide-open look from beyond the arc instead of a contested shot closer to the basket.
"Plus, you get 50 percent more for making a three instead of a two," he added. "That's why we practice it so much."
• Spacing. Making opponents defend the perimeter creates room inside. And the Warriors have two of the NBA's best players in attacking the basket - Davis and Monta Ellis.
"We have two point guards who are really good at penetrating, and they need room," Nelson said. "If we don't keep the defense honest, the lane gets clogged. And if the defense does do that, we should have an open three."
Space in the paint also has contributed to center Andris Biedrins' NBA-best field-goal shooting (62.2 percent).
• Rebounds. The Warriors haven't been, and probably will never be, a very good rebounding team as long as they embrace small-ball. Their rebounding differential (minus 4.3
is second-worst in the league behind only Miami.
That said, a missed three-pointer can often result in a long rebound.
"And we do seem to chase down those well," Nelson said.
• Run, Run, Run. The shot, a primary weapon in the Warriors' up-tempo game, helps lure opponents into a fast-paced game that almost always favors Golden State.
"When our three-point shot is going down, I know I can pretty much do anything else I want on the court," Davis said. "It's hard for teams to guard us when we're hitting the three ball."
Open shots
Warriors executive Chris Mullin said he often will be watching a game with someone who expresses amazement at how many - and how quickly - Golden State shoots from the outside.
"Our philosophy always is if you have the open shot, that's a good shot," Mullin said. "You take it - no matter how much time is on the clock."
But he didn't know his team was firing up three-pointers like no team in NBA history.
"Actually, I thought you were going to say we're on record pace for making them," he said.
Sorry, Chris.
The Warriors' 35.1 percentage from beyond the arc is only 20th-best in the league. (Toronto, which has attempted 602 fewer three-pointers than Golden State, is best at 40.2 percent.)
And such reliance on perimeter jumpers, of course, is a double-edged sword. As the Warriors were getting knocked out of the playoffs last spring, they made only 6 of 30 three-pointers in the 100-87 loss to Utah that eliminated Golden State.
"We just missed them," Davis said at the time.
And they just started taking them again this season.
Near the All-Star break, Nelson had predicted the Warriors would cut down on three-pointers. Instead, the Warriors started shooting more.
"I lied to you," he joked. "We do go overboard once in a while, and I try to suggest to them that it's not an individual thing, it's a team thing. When the team has missed two or three threes in a row, we don't need another one. We need a penetrating play."
Maybe that's what he says. But that's not necessarily what the players hear.
When asked if shooting too many ever was a problem, Jackson had a ready answer.
"Only when we lose."
. I kind of wished I went to UCI even though that is way more in So Cal
