Damian Lillard had just passed the middle line. At this time, the distance between him and RIM was 36 feet. Lillard did not hesitate. He ignored the distance and ignored the defenders in front of him. The ball went through the net nest with wonderful waves and the whole court was detonated.
On the 71st night of Lillard, this was the most distant goal he shot. 8 out of the 13 three points of Lillard are 28 feet or more, and 5 of them are 32 feet or more.
Unlimited range, this is the most terrible place in the 71st night of Lillard. This performance was only played by Stephen Curry and litard himself before. Lillard once said that he was confident that he would not lose to anyone, including Curry, if the range was exceeded. Inadvertently, the number of three points scored 28 feet or more in Lillard’s career has reached 457, slightly exceeding Curry for the time being, and Curry’s career has hit 446.
Curry is the undisputed originator of super far and three points. The famous hardek Nowitzki once commented on Curry: “It’s cool to shoot three points just after the middle line. Curry is the first player to cast such super far and three points. Now everyone can vote like this, but Curry is the first. Especially in fengshui ball, he didn’t rush out when 24 seconds were running out. He deliberately did it. Now everyone is imitating the library and making super far and three points.”
There are Trey-Yang, Donovan-Mitchell, Jordan Poole and so on who imitate Curry’s style, but to say that the one closest to Curry is only beneficial to Rad.
In the 2015-16 season, Curry shot 28 feet or a further three points for 104 times in a single season and scored 50 goals. The shooting rate was 48.1 percent of the horror, and its assist rate was only 26 percent, that is to say, 74 percent of his super-far three points are strong shots with the ball. He made the world realize that the three points can still be cast like this.
Curry’s divine performance brought inspiration to Lillard. In that season, Lillard shot 28 feet or a further three points 56 times, with a hit rate of only 28.6 percent. Then, in the 2016-17 season, Lillard will increase the number of shots to 82, and the hit rate will increase. In the 2017-18 season and 2018-19 season, Lillard shot more than 120 times, with hit rates of 29.8 percent and 34.9 percent respectively.
Obviously, the stability and efficiency of this difficult shooting are not high enough, but at some moments, this method can kill the opponent. In the first round of the playoffs in 2019, Blazers played the fifth game of thunder. Lillard hit a super-far three points at 36 feet, making Paul George the background.
After the game, George said that Lillard’s shot was unreasonable. George’s point of view is still somewhat outdated, because with the progress of the times and the improvement of players’ abilities, such unreasonable shots can also become conventional weapons.
Lillard said, “If we only enter this kind of ball occasionally, then maybe it is not a good choice. But when you can make a steady investment? For example, Curry, he can hit three points in the top ultra distance fengshui ball and hit 3+1 once, so can I. At a certain point, you have to accept the reality that this kind of shooting is a high-quality shot choice for us, and it is no longer an unreasonable shot choice.”
In the 2019-20 season, the confident Lillard made a major breakthrough. In that season, Curry’s attendance rate was extremely low due to injury. Lillard became the god of super far three points. He shot 252 three points at 28 feet or more and hit 101 goals, with a hit rate of 40.1 percent.
TNT ball commented on Kenny Smith’s “provocation” Curry during the commentary: “Stephen, I don’t think your range can reach as far as Lillard. I have to have a good look when you come back.”
Curry replied on Twitter, “You are so stupid”, and then the 2020-21 season handed over 248 shots from 28 feet or more in a single season, with a hit rate of 40.7 percent, the number of goals scored was the same as that of Lillard in the 2019-20 season. The hit rate was 0.6% higher. He told Smith who was the real boss in the field of super far and three points with practical actions. This season, Lillard was 97 out of 261 shots, with a hit rate of 37.2%, and the output efficiency lost to Curry.
Starting from the off-season in 2020, Lillard was no longer satisfied with the logo three points, and he began to practice the middle line three points hard. Terry Stotz, then the pioneer coach, could not accept Lillard throwing this kind of balloon until he witnessed Lillard’s training content and hit rate data statistics.
“(He cast three points in the middle line) This day will come sooner or later.” Stotz said, “he has been expanding his range, and everyone knows his range threat.”
From the video that flowed out at that time, Lillard could easily hit the center three points with standard posture, and he also showed in the All-Star game in the last two years. Of course, Lillard has not yet turned the three points in the middle line into conventional weapons. After all, this will be regarded as deviant anyway. However, it is a fact that Lillard’s range has been greatly expanded. So far in his career, he has hit 12 three points at 36 feet or more, second only to Yang (17) and Curry (15).
Lillard once explained that he developed the super-far three points not simply for himself to score more points, but to expand his range would help him restrain more defense and open up offensive space for the whole team, create easy scoring opportunities for teammates. Because if Lillard was bag clip just after the middle line, holding back the attention of at least two defenders, other players of the Blazers would have more opportunities to copy the back door and shoot at the spot.
Do you remember? Patrick Beverly once said that he would not let his opponents get 70 points in front of him, and they would get bag clip after 40 points. But is this kind of defense useful to Lillard?
Today, the first battle with the Rockets is typical. After Lillard blew 41 points at half court, the rockets began to go crazy bag clip Lillard. Zebull passed the ball once in the third quarter, with a fixed point of three points, defeated the rocket’s bag clip.
In many three-pointer statistics charts, Curry and lirad ranked first and second. Although the number of three-point hits of Lillard 28 feet or more exceeded Curry for the time being, his hit rate of 34.4 percent was still slightly different from that of 35.7 percent in Curry.
Although Lillard thought that he would not lose to curry by comparing the range, he also admitted that there was a gap between him and curry in efficiency. He could only compete for the second shooter in history: “In terms of the projection type of the three-pointer, I think only Curry is the same as me. Look at his data, he is the best shooter in history. But in terms of projection type, I think only I am the same as him, and I should enter the discussion of the second shooter in history.”
Lillard and Curry cherish each other. He has been learning Curry and learning the advantages of Curry. In addition to expanding the range, Lillard also imitated Curry this season and joined a large number of receive the ball shots without ball running, his fixed-point shooting, winding cover receive the ball shooting hundred rounds have improved.
Unfortunately, because of their respective injuries, they have never competed on the same stage since November 27, 2021. On March 1st, the two teams will fight, but Curry is likely to be absent due to injuries. The two will have to wait until April 10 at the earliest for the next duel. When will the two top shooters have another summit match?