Cleveland Cavaliers Must Build off Historic Shooting, Not Rest on It

As Game 3 between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks approaches, feathers may still be smoldering inside Quicken Loans Arena.

After the red-hot Cavs demolished the Hawks 123-98 behind a barrage of three-pointers, it would be easy for them to coast. Already up 2-0 and having just set an NBA all-time record of 25 made three-pointers in a game, how much better can Cleveland get?

The only team left unbeaten this postseason, the Cavaliers have to stay hungry despite going relatively unchallenged to this point. Before Thursday, only six teams had ever even reached 22 or more (regular and postseason) in league history.

This historic three-point performance was nice but can’t be relied upon as a typical strategy. Cleveland should by no means give up shooting threes in bunches but must continue to build on other successful habits that haven’t gained as much attention.

Keep Letting It Fly

The Cavs finished third in the regular season with 10.7 makes on 29.6 attempts and were seventh with a 36.2 percent success rate. Remarkably, finishing third in total conversions this year was still good for a spot in league history, per Victor Mather of the New York Times:

The Cavaliers’ 3-point marksmanship has been overlooked this season in the shadow of the [Golden State] Warriors. While Golden State made 1,077 3-pointers, a record, Cleveland made 880 of its own, the fifth-highest total of all time. J. R. Smith led the way with 204, but Kevin Love, Matthew Dellavedova, LeBron James and many others had 3-point punch, as well.

Outside shooting has become a staple of Cleveland’s offense and a main part of its identity. A whopping 30.9 percent of its scoring came via the three-ball, second only to Golden State’s 34.9 percent, per NBA.com.

This isn’t by mistake, either. James needs to be surrounded by shooters. This is a mutually beneficial relationship, as his ability to draw double teams creates open looks for others, while their presence and spacing in turn opens up driving lanes for him.

Of course, the style of these three-pointers matters a great deal as well.

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Cleveland has players such as Dellavedova, Richard Jefferson, Love and Channing Frye who struggle to create open looks for themselves from beyond the arc but excel when spotting up …

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