Warriors and Cavaliers pushing the boundaries of three-point shooting
By Ian Levy
The old adage about three-point shooting teams not being able to win a title is dead and buried. This year’s NBA Finals is pushing away from that idea in the most extreme way possible. The Cleveland Cavaliers have been burying opponents with the three since the playoffs began and, after a relatively slow start, it was a three-point explosion that carried the Golden State Warriors through their comeback against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The NBA record for three-pointers made in a single postseason is 240, set last season by the Warriors. They broke the record of 203 three-pointers, set by the San Antonio Spurs in 2013-14. It seems all but certain that the record will be broken again this season — the Warriors have made 212 to this point, the Cavaliers 202. What’s interesting is that the Cavaliers have actually set a much faster pace.
The Cavaliers have been averaging 14.4 made three-pointers per game in the playoffs, compared to the Warriors’ 12.4. If the Cavaliers had played the same 17 games as Golden State did on their way to the Finals, averaging the same number of three-point makes, they’d already own the record with 244 made threes before the Finals even begin.
Assuming both teams continue to make three-pointers at the same rate, here’s where their three-point totals would be, depending on how many games the series lasts:
Because the Cavaliers have been making slightly more three-pointers per game than the Warriors, they could reasonably expect to close the gap by the Game 4 or Game 5. If the series went all the way to Game 7, it’s more than possible that we could see one or both teams hit 300 total three-pointers, would be an increase of 25 percent over the previous record set just one season ago.
The three-pointer is revolutionizing the game of basketball and one of the noisiest battles of the revolution begins tonight. Naturally, it will be televised.