[外電] Three For the Money
Three For the Money
Improved three-point shooting has changed the way the Hawks offense does business.
By Jon Cooper
There’s a movement going on to revitalize downtown.
Ground zero for this movement is Philips Arena, specifically
the area ranging from 22 feet to 23 feet, nine inches from the
basket at which the Hawks are shooting.
So far, the turnaround from last year has been dramatic.
Heading into action Wednesday night against the Detroit
Pistons, the Hawks were the fourth-best shooting team in the
entire NBA from behind the arc, hitting threes at a sizzling
.389 clip — only Chicago (.403), Detroit (.398) and
Philadelphia (.394) are shooting better — well ahead of the
franchise-best .359, shot in 1996-97.
“We’re shooting more and I think our younger guys have gotten
better,” said Head Coach Mike Woodson. “I’m not stressing we
shoot threes. I’m not a big proponent of that. But I think if
you’ve got guys that can make them and if it’s in rhythm and
the right time and place, it’s okay.
“We have been shooting lights out from the three as well as
from the field (Atlanta is 12th in the league, shooting .456),”
he continued. “I think a lot of it is we spend a lot of time
shooting. A lot of shooting drills that we go through in practice
put us in position to hopefully make shots when we get to the
game. Our coaches have done a great job in that.”
The improvement over last season is dramatic. In 2004-05, the
Hawks shot an NBA-low .312 from three-point range. Antoine
Walker led the team with 85 three-point field goals made,
despite playing in only 53 games with Atlanta and converting
at a little over 32 percent (.323). Tony Delk (72) and Tyronn
Lue (40) followed Walker, but after them, no one made more than
30 threes.
This year, still five games from the halfway point, the Hawks
already have two players with more than 40 three-pointers made
(Joe Johnson has 45, Salim Stoudamire has 41) and two honing
in on 30 (Al Harrington has 28, Lue has 27), with five players
shooting over 38 percent (minimum 25 attempts). That last group
doesn’t even include Johnson!
“We’re creating a lot more for each other and we’re
penetrating and kicking,” said Johnson, who is shooting .346
from three. “When the ball goes into the post it comes out.
When you have good ball movement a lot of things that can happen.
For us, shooting well from three is one of them.”
Johnson is a career .382 shooter from downtown and last season
became only the fourth player in NBA history to make at least
150 threes (177) while shooting at least .450 (.478). He is
supposed to make threes. Harrington is not.
In his eighth NBA season, Harrington entered 2005-06 making only
24.4 percent of his threes and had made only 60 three-point
field goals his entire career — never more than 21 in a season
(2003-04). He’s already made 28 this season and was shooting
them at 50 percent until a slump last week knocked him down to
41.0 — still good for 20th overall in the league (“They were
going in last week,” he said and smiled. “I’ve had a bad week
this week, so.”)
Harrington believes part of the reason this year’s Hawks are
shooting better is that they’re getting better looks. In turn,
he attributes that to opposing teams basing their defensive
schemes on last season and daring the Hawks to beat them from
outside.
“I think teams look at that stat and realize we were not the
greatest three-point shooting team last year so [the coaches]
probably tell them to pack it in,” he said. “Guys are open
and they’re just making shots.”
Harrington also credits Johnson’s presence.
“It’s helped a lot,” said Harrington, a natural three, who
is playing out of position at the four. “We’ve got an
inside-outside thing going right now. He’s a threat out there
not only to shoot but to create things for everyone. The fact
that Joe’s such a great penetrator is leaving me open on the
outside.”
“Any time I get in the lane I’m always looking for guys that
are open,” said Johnson. “When Al is at the four guys are not
really coming out on the [three-point-line] on him. So when I
penetrate and his man helps, I’m always kicking.”
Harrington is not alone in benefiting from Johnson’s
penetrating and kicking. Lue is fourth in the league, shooting
.474 from behind the arc — third-best in the NBA and almost
100 points higher than his career average (.379) from three.
Rookie guard Salim Stoudamire has lived up to expectations and
has added to the team’s fire power. He is hitting .380 from
behind the arc (41 of 108), fourth-best among rookies, and has
shown the ability to take over games with his shooting. In the
third quarter of the Jan. 14 game against Washington at Philips
Arena, Stoudamire scored nine points in 65 seconds and 14 points
in a little more than 3:30 of action to rally the Hawks from a
double-digit deficit. Twice he was fouled on three-point attempts
by panicked opponents trying to get out on him.
“He’s an unbelievable talent,” said Harrington. “He’s
dangerous. Not only does he shoot the ball, but he’s a great
penetrator and can pass the ball out and get guys involved.
He’s got a good package going.”
Stoudamire deflects some of the credit for his success back to
Johnson and Harrington.
“Teams double- and triple-team them and that leaves me wide
open at the three-point line,” he said. “It’s just up to me
to knock it down.
“We’ve all been shooting it well, Al, Joe, Tyronn,” he added.
“It opens up things for the post players. It allows them to get
loose and be effective down there.”
While Johnson, Harrington, Lue and Stoudamire are the main
perimeter threats, rookie Marvin Williams is hitting a
surprising .393 from three and Josh Childress is making 52.2
percent of his three-point attempts to become viable options.
With the outside game a component that opponents must respect,
the next order of business is establishing the inside game.
“It is a nice weapon to have,” said Woodson. “Now we need to
focus on making teams respect us inside as well. Teams that are
successful shooting threes have an inside game, an inside threat,
where you can draw double-teams and the guy kicks it out to guys
that are sitting out at the three-point line that you know can
make shots, so we’ve got to develop that a little better.”
文章來源
http://www.nba.com/hawks/news/Three_For_The_Money_011906.html
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