That's one side of the story. The other one is this: Both teams have shot better from 6.75, but Barcelona have raised their percentages by 6% while Panathinaikos have done it by about 14%. That's more than double, so the team that has benefited the most by this is obviously PAO. And while the difference in pct is ~11% for Panathinaikos, the difference in made shots is just 5 for Barcelona.
So indeed, Panathinaikos depends less on long range shots than Barcelona, but they r the team that gained more from these possessions. I would say that they r not the reasons 4 PAO being able 2 play better than Barcelona. They r a reason though why PAO is performing better than in the rest of the season, because this makes them feel more comfortable in their game.
Barcelona probably can't win game 4 because of abnormal 3p percentages. They didn't manage 2 win game 3 while shooting over 50% until the 35th minute or so. They have 2 do something different because they have been outplayed overall in the series. Unless something like what u said happens; Barca shoots 14/25 and PAO shoots 4/16 from beyond the arc. But again, if this really happens, why shouldn't the opposite happen in game 5?
Both teams really improved form the 3 point range . Barca by 6 percent, PAO by the double.
Thats logical if your consider the fact that we re in the play offs and teams are way more focused.
Now it s true that PAO improved more than barca but for me that can be explained by the fact that PAO doesnt rely so much on the 3points shots. PAO has the advantage in the post in nearly every single position. Either with DD, either with sato , either with batist PAO goes in the post when the goings get tough.
We saw that at the beginning of the fourth where DD gained 3 straight fouls abusing rubio and sada in the post.
On the other side , barca doesn t have this luxury. When the goings get tough, they start chucking 3s , when most of them are BAD shots. Not all of them but a quite important amount, thus resulting to a percentage of 40 percent from the arc.
Barca has to stop talking those extra 5-7 bad 3point shot attempts and you ll see that they will average nearly 50 percent like PAO.
PAO has managed to limit the three points attempts to his great shooters. In the first game only 3 players shot the 3 ( and calathes only shot once), in the second and third five players -again with tsartsaris and calathis taking one in each game.
PAO shoots only whith a great shooter -DD, nicholas, fotsis, sato and and un der great circumstances , so his percentage is actually quite normal.
On the other hand , in each game , 8 different players shoot 3s for barca, even players that are terrible shooters like rubio, sada , thus resulting to a still very good 40 percent.
I m sorry but I dont see anything extraordinary here. PAO shoots under great circumstances only and ONLY with great shooters.
Barca shoots under ALL circumstances with a combination of great but also some mediocre shooters.
Nothing surprising consequently in those statistics.
