Top 5 Players with Most 3s in a Single Game in NBA Finals History
The three-point shot has revolutionized the game of basketball, especially in the NBA. Surprisingly the scouts, agents and coaches are asking their big man (Power Forwards and Centres) to spread the floor and be efficient from beyond the arc. The analytics have tried to convince the old NBA to give focus to the 3 pointers.
Their reasoning is such a good 2pt accuracy is above 50%, however the same from beyond the arc is just 33%. So players can convert fewer shots but still have more points. This is a list of 5 of the best shooting performances from beyond the arc which benefited the team in an NBA finals game.
Moreover, in today's game starting with the ' Splash Brother', the guards are heavily relying on their accuracy and quickness to create shots from beyond the arc. As seen from the 2018 western conference finals the '3' has the ability to turn the games around but also break them. Houston in game 7 shot an abysmal 7-44 from the 3point line, while Curry himself shot 7-15 from the arc and Houston's dreams were crushed in the third quarter.
#5 - J.R Smith- Game 5 - 2017
In a surprising twist, the do or die game-4 proved that the King, Kyrie and the squad could really take on the star-studded Golden State Warriors. BY outscoring the Warriors in game 4 49-33 and defeating them by a margin of 21 pts some people did believe that the 'King' could again upset the GSW this time by coming back from 3-0. For this to happen they needed all the help they could get from the starter and other supporting members like J.R., Tristan, Shumpert, Williams, Korver and Jefferson. Things looked good for the Cavs when the score 37 in Q1 taking a four-point lead and J.R. Smith had one of the best games of his career. While J.R. was shooting so efficiently Kyrie only shot a meagre 40% and Love did not even perform decently going 2-8 and scoring just 6pts the whole game.
It wasn't just the number of three's J.R. Smith converted, the reason this was a stellar performance was that he went 7-8 from beyond the arc. So he had the ability to increase his defensive prowess and not be mentally concerned about missing the rim. Even though the Cavs lost the game and the series, J.R stepped up and because of shooting skill that game the loss was restricted to only 9 points