The Nuggets came into their first-round series against the Timberwolves as the NBA's top-ranked three-point shooting team by percentage. They led the league in five different key three-point shooting metrics, and they shot 39.6% from beyond the arc on the season. You'd never guess that was the case by the way the Nuggets have shot the three-ball in the first four games of the series.
The Nuggets are shooting just a putrid 28.5% against the Timberwolves, and it's one large reason the team is down 3-1 and facing the reality of an early exit at the hands of their bitter rival. What happened? Where did the shooting go? Four games in a row? That didn't happen in the regular season.
The Nuggets are missing wide-open threes
It's an issue that has swept the locker room. It's not just Nikola Jokic tossing up brick after brick from downtown, but everybody is missing more, including on wide-open threes, or when the nearest defender is six or more feet away. The Nuggets were the best wide-open three-point shooting team in the league in the regular season, averaging 7.9 made wide-open threes at a 42.8% rate.
That number has dropped drastically to just 5.5, making wide-open threes at a 32.4% rate in four games against the Timberwolves. The rate of decrease is worse when the nearest defender is four to six feet away. The Nuggets went from a 36.7% shooting rate to a 24.5% rate.
It's not even the pressure the Timberwolves are applying. And it's more pressure than the Nuggets have faced in recent memory, due to Rudy Gobert's stellar defensive play, forcing Jokic to play one-on-one and freeing up the defense for man coverage.
The shooters haven't shown up
Jamal Murray set the Nuggets franchise record for made threes this year. He had 245 threes and shot 43.5%. Through four games, he's just 9-34 for 26.5%. No flurries, not even a sign of one.
And Tim Hardaway Jr., who had 224 made threes at a 40.7% rate, is just 6-18, at 33.3%. Aaron Gordon, 3-14 for 21.4%. Cam Johnson? 4-18 for 22.2%. Hardaway actually looks good in comparison.
We all know about Jokic's struggles beyond the arc. He's 5-27, good for just 18.5%, the worst of the rotation. His poor three-point shooting has become a liability because it allows Gobert to sag off of him and help out in the post.
Where did it all go? Only Christian Braun is hitting threes. He's 4-8. He was the worst in the regular season at 30.1%. Everything flipped. It's a bizzarro three squad, and if the Nuggets have any chance of a 3-1 comeback, the three-ball has to come back immediately.
Add us as a preferred source on Google