The Clippers shot so well last season that Reggie Jackson joked that they’d “damn near called timeouts for teams knowing how hot we were going to get.”
It’s been a woefully different story this season.
“Now, we’re all just sitting there with our fingers crossed just hoping one of them drops and then we get it going,” Jackson said Monday, after the Clippers eked out a 99-94 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, victorious despite shooting just 38% from the field and 35.7% from 3-point range – their best mark of the young season.
If it’s any consolation, the early season shooting struggles aren’t confined to the Clippers’ camp.
Heading into Tuesday night’s games, NBA players league-wide were shooting a combined 44.6% – the lowest percentage in the past four years through 102 games, according to a report from the Sporting News.
The NBA’s average 3-point percentage so far this season – 34.2% – was also the lowest in the past four years through that 102-game threshold.
For what it’s worth, the Clippers were shooting 46.6% from the field and 39.4% from behind the arc through their first six games last season, but finished at 48.2% from the floor and a franchise-record 41.1% from deep.
So what’s up with so many shots refusing to go down?
Theories abound like rebounds.
One of them: Legs.
After COVID-19 triggered two consecutive abbreviated offseasons, a lot of these professional hoopers have tired legs.
“If I had to guess, I would guess probably because of the last year and a half of the NBA, just how it’s been,” said Terance Mann, the Clippers’ hard-charging third-year wing who has played 1,818 NBA minutes since he made his season debut on Oct. 24, 2020.
“The bubble, real short offseason. Really, really, really short offseason after the bubble. (Then) playing a whole, you know, 70-something games, some guys go deep in the playoffs, then another short offseason. Then coming right back to it. I think it’s just, you know, a lot of guys’ legs, a lot of guys’ bodies have never been through this before. If I had to guess, that’s probably what it is.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault’s team saw its season end with a win against the Clippers on May 16, but he could buy into the theory that fatigue is playing a role, league-wide, he said.
“The short offseasons are real,” he said before Monday’s game in L.A. “These seasons are long and they’re a grind, mentally and physically. So the short offseasons, I think, play a part and has a cumulative effect over time, when you have two straight offseasons that are short, especially with the teams that have made deep playoff runs.”
But Daigneault ventured another guess too, describing the shooting dip as something of a market correction.
“There’s also ebbs and flows in the league,” he said. “They can kind of crack the code offensively, and then defenses adjust and it swings back. So I think that’s probably a pretty natural market, you know, thing – I’m not an economist! Clearly. But yeah, I think there’s probably a little bit of that.”
Plenty of others – including Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum, the NBPA president – said it could be related to the new Wilson basketball, which replaced the Spalding version the NBA had been using for most of the previous 37 seasons.
Clippers star Paul George said he subscribed to that hypothesis, although he is among those shooting it just fine. The seven-time All-Star was knocking down shots at a career-best 49.2% from the field entering Wednesday’s game in Minnesota, and at a near-career-high from 3-point range (41.1%).
Still, after he took part in a game Monday that featured as many airballs as a junior varsity contest at a high school might, George said he sensed the new ball is making a difference.
“Not to make an excuse or anything about the ball, but I said that – it’s a different basketball,” he said. “It don’t have the same touch or softness that the Spalding ball had, and you’ll see this year, it’s gonna be a lot of bad misses. You’ll see a lot of bad misses.
“I think you’ve seen a lot of airballs so far this season. So, again, not to put any excuse or blame the basketball, but it is different, it’s no secret, it’s a different basketball.”
McCollum didn’t want to spin it as a new ball problem, either, tweeting: “It is not the ball’s fault I missed shots lol. That’s the shooters fault. For the record.”
It is not the balls fault I missed shots lol. That’s the shooters fault. For the record https://t.co/pEQbYt3bVk
— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) November 2, 2021