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Oklahoma City Thunder's 3-Point Shooting Is The Source Of Their Playoff Struggles

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The Oklahoma City Thunder have been an inconsistent 3-point shooting team all year. In the 2018-19 regular season, they had the 9th worst 3-point shooting percentage at 34.8 percent. 

Among playoff teams, they were the second worst 3-point shooting team, ahead of only the Detroit Pistons. Although the Thunder were not a good team shooting from deep, the volume at which they attempted them was still relatively high. Oklahoma City attempted 32.6 shots from behind the arc per game, which was 13th most in the entire NBA. 

Although Oklahoma City had some stretches this season in which they were hot and shot a good percentage, they struggled from 3 the majority of the season. For example, in the first 36 games of the season, they were the worst 3-point shooting team in the league at 32.2 percent. 

Coming into the playoffs, one of the biggest questions surrounding the Thunder was their 3-point shooting. Would they get on another hot streak and thrive from deep, or would they be the poor shooting team they were the majority of the season?

The short answer: neither. 

Through the first two games of Oklahoma City’s playoff run, they have been abysmal from the 3-point line, much worse than what they shoot during the regular season. Shooting 16.4 percent in their first two playoff games has resulted in Oklahoma City finding themselves down 0-2 early in the series with the Portland Trail Blazers. 

This 16.4 percent clip from 3 is the worst among playoff teams thus far, by a wide margin. On the other end of the floor, Portland has the second best 3-point percentage in the playoffs at 42.1 percent.  

Although there are many areas of Oklahoma City’s playoff performance that have contributed two losses, the 3-point shooting is the most glaring issue. It is nearly impossible to win games, especially playoff games, when you shoot under 20 percent from deep. 

As evidence of this, there were 96 games in the 2018-19 regular season in which a team shot below 20 percent from 3. Of those 96 games, the teams that shot this poorly went 89-7. With a sample size that large, it is clear that shooting this poorly from deep does not result in wins, as these teams only won 7.3 percent of the time. 

In the modern NBA, 3-point shooting is becoming increasingly more common and a focal point of many offenses around the league. If Oklahoma City can get through their shooting slump and even get back to their low season average of 34.8 percent, they will look like a completely different team. 

Luckily for the Thunder, they will play their next two games of the series at home in Oklahoma City. Over the course of the regular season, Oklahoma City was a much better 3-point shooting team at home than on the road. At home this season, they shot 35.7 percent from 3 while only shooting 33.9 percent on the road. 

In a must-win game at home Friday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder will look to have a turnaround performance and win their first game of the series. The key to winning this game, as well as more games going forward, is to simply start getting their 3-point shots to drop.