Greatest NBA playoff ‘pure shooters’ in the three-point era
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Larry Bird (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Your team is down by one and has the ball with 10 seconds left. Who do you want to take the last shot?
Your team is up by two with five seconds remaining. Who do you want to get fouled and sink two free throws to ice the game?
Your team is down by three and needs a three-pointer to tie. Who do you want to shoot the three?
One final question: Who would you rate as the greatest “pure shooters” in the NBA playoffs during the three-point era?
I know, a lot of questions to answer. But here’s a little help. To try to answer the last question of the greatest “pure shooters” in the NBA playoffs in the three-point era, I established a few guidelines. First, a player had to have played in 40 or more playoff games in his career. Secondly, to qualify for the best “pure shooter” label, a player had to have a career playoff shooting percentage of .450 in field goals, .300 in three-point attempts, and a .850 free throw percentage.
Here are the players who qualified for the list (minimum of 40 shots attempted in each category to qualify)
Player, playoff games, FG pct/3-pt pct/FT pct
Larry Bird, 164, .472/.321/.890
Jeff Hornacek, 140, .470/.433/.886
Dirk Nowitzki, 128, .463/.380/.893
John Paxson, 119, .494/.369/.867
Steve Nash, 118, .473/.409/.899
Ray Allen, 113, .453/.415/.893
Joe Dumars, 112, .462/.358/.855
Ricky Pierce, 97, .466/.355/.866
Antonio Daniels, 80/.461/.353/.863
Hersey Hawkins, 74, .455/.396/.907
Chris Mullin, 71, .495/.409/.859
Kiki Vandeweghe, 68, .510/.345/.907
Mark Price, 47, .464/.337/.944
If we use these same criteria for this year’s playoffs, and drop the minimum attempts to 10, we have only two players who qualify as the best “pure shooters” in this year’s playoffs. They are:
Chris Paul, 5 games, .469/.389/.882
James Harden, 4 games, .500/.462/.871
What do you think?
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2012 NBA Playoffs: Scoring 35 or more points at age 35+ in the playoffs
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published multiple times weekly focusing on stats that go beyond the numbers.
Karl Malone (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A handful of older players (age 35 or older) are on the rosters of the teams remaining in the NBA playoffs. In fact, a few of those players play predominant scoring roles for their teams, including Boston’s elder statesmen Kevin Garnett (he will turn 36 on May 19) and Ray Allen (age 36), and San Antonio’s Tim Duncan (he just turned 36 in April). Could any of these three (or any other 35+ player) light up the scoreboard with 35 or more points at age 35-plus in this year’s playoffs?
Karl Malone at age 36 and 273 days, is the oldest player to score 50 points in an NBA playoff game.
Here’s a look at the players who have scored 35 or more points at age 35 (or older) in the last 25 playoffs (since 1986 playoffs).
Most playoff points by player 35 years of age and older (age), team, date
50: Karl Malone (36) Utah, 4/22/2000
45: Michael Jordan (35) Chicago, 6/14/98
41: Michael Jordan (35) Chicago, 5/19/98
41: Reggie Miller (35) Indiana, 4/24/2001
39: Michael Jordan (35) Chicago, 4/24/98
38: Michael Jordan (35) Chicago, 4/29/98
37: Michael Jordan (35) Chicago, 6/5/98
36: Alex English (35) Denver, 4/30/89
35: Michael Jordan (35) Chicago, 5/3/98
35: Michael Jordan (35) Chicago, 5/29/98
35: Reggie Miller (35) Indiana, 4/28/2001
If we drop the point total down to 30 points in a playoff game, here’s a look at the players age 35+ who scored 30 points or more in the most playoff games in the last 25 years.
Most playoff games (1986-2011) with 30+ points at age 35+, Player(s)
14: Michael Jordan
6: Reggie Miller
5: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone
1: Ray Allen, Charles Barkley, Sam Cassell, Alex English, Eddie Johnson, Kevin McHale, Steve Nash, Clifford Robinson
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