Warriors Duo Leads a Flood of 3
Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry, who make up the starting backcourt for the Golden State Warriors, are shooting 3-pointers more often than any other teammates have before. They are 1-2 in the N.B.A. in 3-pointers and 3-point attempts. And in a league that has gone crazy for the 3-point shot, it could be argued that they are a rare case of players who should be shooting from long range even more.
Curry led the league in 3-pointers made and attempted last season, but Thompson, a third-year player out of Washington State, was the leader this season with 93 3-pointers in 220 attempts through Friday. With Curry hot on his tail (90 of 220), they could become the first teammates to finish in the top two spots since the shot was adopted for the 1979-80 season.
Three-point shooting is up throughout the league, with the average number of shots and makes on a pace to break the N.B.A. record for the third consecutive season. The crowded field would seemingly make it hard for Thompson and Curry to pull off the 1-2 feat, but neither has traded quality for quantity: Thompson has connected on 42.3 percent of his 3-pointers, and Curry has hit 40.9 percent.
Remarkably, despite the large number of 3-point attempts coming from two players, the Warriors are not even close to the league lead in team attempts. The Houston Rockets entered the weekend No. 1 with 818 attempts; Golden State, with 729, was fifth. But in an indictment of Houston's decision-making, the Rockets had made five 3-pointers fewer than the Warriors.
The key to Golden State's success is letting the top shooters fire at will while keeping the rest of the team away from the high-risk shot. Thompson and Curry account for 60.4 percent of the team's 3-point attempts, and the four other players averaging two or more 3-point attempts a game are all above average in terms of shooting percentage. The Warriors' big men, Andrew Bogut and David Lee, have combined for one shot from downtown. (Lee missed it.)
The Rockets, for all of their flash, could learn a lesson in restraint from the Warriors. James Harden entered the weekend leading Houston in 3-point attempts, with more than six a game, while connecting on just 31.6 percent. Francisco Garcia and Patrick Beverley were attempting an average of more than four 3-pointers a game despite shooting at a rate below the league average, 36 percent.
The Warriors, although they have not adopted Houston's reckless strategy, ranked 11th in the N.B.A. in scoring. They could probably stand to trade a few percentage points on their signature shot for a few more points a game.
As for Thompson and Curry's chances of sitting at the top of the leader board at the end of the season, their main competition is Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers. Coincidentally, Lillard, a second-year star from Weber State, grew up in Oakland, Calif., the city the Warriors call home.
East Gets Even Weaker
The Eastern Conference was top-heavy even before the Atlanta Hawks lost their All-Star center Al Horford indefinitely because of a torn pectoral muscle.
The Hawks are the only other team in the conference with a winning record besides the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers. After Horford was injured Thursday, Atlanta held on to beat Cleveland in double overtime, which raised the Hawks' record to 16-13. That record would make them a fringe playoff team in the Western Conference.
Should Atlanta falter without Horford, it is hard to tell what other team could challenge Miami and Indiana. The Toronto Raptors are the only other Eastern Conference team with a positive scoring differential, but that has helped only so much. They led the pitiful Atlantic Division at 12-15 entering Saturday's game against the Knicks.
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