Saturday, May 06, 2006

Why shoot the 3 when you are only down by 1?

Its a rare sports-related post from me, but I guess I just want to ask the world at large a question, inspired two of the Cleveland-Washington games in this year's playoffs.

If you are down by just 1 point with a chance for one last shot, wouldn't you want to try to get a shot close to the basket? I mean, this might be going out on a limb, but it seems like shots are easier to make when you are closer. That's why you get an extra point for making one that is far away. But if you are only losing by 1, then you don't need to make a 3 pointer to win. A regular old 2 pointer will give you the victory. And I'll concede that it might be harder to get an open shot in closer, but even when these guys had some room to get closer without going right into the defense, they made sure to stop behind the 3-point line, as if they need to make sure its a 3 pointer. I mean I think I'm pretty good at math, and last I checked 2 points would have put them 1 point ahead.

No comments: