Mavs need the 3 for their long-range plans
12:13 AM CST on Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Mavericks' two most frequent 3-point shooters, and arguably their best from long range, have been going in opposite directions lately.
Jason Kidd missed his first seven 3-pointers of the season, then went through a skull session with development coach Brad Davis and has been over .500 since (24-for-46), including 5-of-9 against Sacramento on Friday.
But the rest of the team was 0-for-10, including Jason Terry, who missed all five of his attempts.
To his credit, the Jet didn't force things against the Kings, shooting better than 50 percent overall (8-of-15) because he got his midrange game going. He led a huge Mavericks' bench brigade with 20 points.
The law of averages says Terry will come around. He's 18-of-60 (.300) this season, which is far below his career percentage of .383.
"Just because you miss a few early doesn't mean you're not a hell of a shooter," coach Rick Carlisle said. "The same thing happened to Josh [Howard] last year, when he missed a bunch early and still ended up at 35 or 36 percent [actually, 34.5] for the year."
The Mavericks are winning games, which is masking any problems that might be hiding under the surface.
But 3-point shooting has to be a weapon for them. If they don't perk up from their .349 percentage thus far, it's going to put a strain on other parts of their offense.