Trail Blazers preparing to let it fly against the Warriors
PORTLAND, Ore. – When an NBA team is 88 games into its season and the travel and practice schedule suddenly is at the mercy of the most recent game’s score, it can be nice when a drill doubles as a competitive challenge among friends.
That’s why the Portland Trail Blazers appreciate a drill they call “100 threes.”
Each player, although not all at once, is fed the ball to take 100 three-point shots from locations all around the arc. The player who makes the most is the champion, but scores are kept for everyone who participates.
“Nobody wants to be at the bottom of that list,” said Blazers guard Damian Lillard. “You’ve got guys who you guys might not think is a great shooter hitting 65, 70 threes out of 100. It takes a lot; you put a lot of time being able to make those shots.”
No team makes more than the Blazers’ next Playoff opponent, the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors, who host Portland in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC), set an NBA record with 1,077 made three-pointers this season. They are the first team to make more than 1,000 threes in a season and did it with the second-best percentage (41.6) in league history.
The Blazers like the three-point shot, too, and not just because of the drill. The fact they made 10 more than the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday in Game 6 of their first round series was a big reason the Blazers were able to build and maintain their biggest lead late in what turned out to be the series clincher.
They also like to shoot them against Golden State – or at least welcome the need to. They made a season-high 19 in a loss at Golden State on March 11 and sank 17 in a win Feb. 19 in Portland.
“I believe in the percentages of the three-point shot,” said Blazers coach Terry Stotts. “If a guy is a 35% shooter, it’s going to work its way through. As long as they’re good shots and open shots and we shoot them with confidence, it’s going to work itself out. That’s part of who we are. We’ve got to take them and believe that you’re going to make them.”
Portland made 33.7% of its three-point attempts against the Clippers, but shot 36.1% in their wins and 23.2% in their losses.
Not surprisingly, three-point shooting also factored into the Blazers’ matchups with the Warriors this season.
Portland allowed a season-high in three-pointers (18) and points in a 136-111 loss at Golden State on April 3. The Blazers’ single-game season high in points also came against the Warriors, in a 137-105 win on Feb. 19. That game was by far the Warriors’ largest losing margin in a regular season that saw them set an NBA record for wins with 73 and just nine losses. “That's hard to forget,” said Blazers guard Gerald Henderson. “That was one of the highlights of our year there.”
But Blazers center Mason Plumlee pointed out the game was a regular-season matchup, and came right after the All-Star Game, one that featured three Warriors players. “The regular season is too different, two different animals,” he said. “You can’t put any stock in that.”
Golden State won the three other regular-season meetings, with the average score in their four matchups at 124-117. As is the case for most Warriors opponents, those totals stand out on the Blazers’ ledger. Portland scored 13 fewer points per game against the rest of its regular-season competition and allowed 20 fewer.
Henderson, for his part, expects more defense from both teams and fewer transition opportunities than seen in their season-high outbursts of February and April. “You can't expect to win giving up that many points,” he said.
But many Blazers, including their coach, know that the Warriors put together quick, double-digit scoring spurts all the time. The key for the Blazers may be remaining confident that they can, too. All those “100 threes” drills do serve a purpose.
“They’re going to make shots,” Lillard said. “We can’t get discouraged by that, but every possession matters when you play a team like that.”