The Cleveland Cavaliers have fought back and finally secured their first win in their series against the Detroit Pistons. The Cavs, now only down 2-1, took the close win on Saturday, defeating Detroit 116-109. It was a game that never should've been as close as it was. That's because the Cavs held a strong lead coming out of halftime, up by 16 and in clear control of the game. Then the third quarter began, and for some bizarre reason, the Cavs started shooting an absurd number of three-point attempts.
As a team, the Cleveland missed all but one of them to start the quarter, going 1-7 from three. There would be no mid-quarter turnaround as the Cavs finished 2-9 from three in the third quarter. It was a pitiful offensive display, especially considering they erased a 64-48 lead at the start of the quarter, and watched it whittle down to just a three-point lead (83-80) to end it.
This wasn't a sign that the Pistons' defense was just otherworldly. When the Cavaliers were putting up junk shots, the team went 6-7 from inside the three-point line in the quarter. When the team tried to impose their will down low, they found success.
When they attacked the paint, they scored, but for some reason, the Cavaliers often got lazy and just started shooting desperation threes. Yet, arguably, no one is more egregious at this than the Cavs' star guard, Mitchell.
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For the Pistons' series, he's shooting just 29.6% from beyond the arc. The prior series against the Toronto Raptors saw him just shoot 33.3%. In fact, he's been shooting around the 33% mark dating back to the start of March. He's a career 36.8% shooter, which isn't bad, but it's not a number that suggests shooting threes should be the primary focus of his offense.
For some reason, though, he's been shooting more and more threes as the postseason has gone on. In March, he was averaging 6.8 attempts per game. In the Raptors' series, it jumped to 8.6 and against the Pistons to 9.0. For comparison, the best three-point shooter of his generation (if not all-time), Steph Curry, only averages 9.4 attempts from three for his career, and he's a career 42.2% shooter from that range.
So, unless you're hitting as often as Curry, one could argue you shouldn't be shooting as many as Curry. Which makes Mitchell's shot selection even more puzzling because, as subpar as he is from beyond the arc, he's that much better from inside of it.
Mitchell is an amazing scorer in the paint, hitting 58% of his two-point shots for the regular season. Against the Pistons, he's doing even better, hitting 62.5% of his shots when he comes in from three. And yet, he settles for a lot of bad three-point attempts, which only hinders the offense.
When you look at the disparity, it's shocking that Mitchell has such a green light from three. Especially when you realize he's just fifth on the team this postseason when converting from that range. Considering the rate of success he's had when he's brought in his shot, and the fact that the Cavs are 5-5 this postseason, it may behove the team and Mitchell to lay off the three-point attempts unless absolutely needed.
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