Portland Trail Blazers: 5 Things That Will Help Clinch 8th Seed

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Mar 28, 2017; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum (3) shoots over Denver Nuggets forward Wilson Chandler (21) during the fourth quarter at the Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports /

5. Continue To Shoot Three-Pointers Efficiently

The Trail Blazers have been among the league’s top three-point shooting teams for several years.

But the Blazers really hit their stride in March. The team collectively shot a league-high 41.7 percent from outside this month. That’s their best perimeter shooting month since November 2013. At that time they shot 42.3 percent in 15 games.

Their March mark was a 5.4 percent improvement from the 36.3 percent they shot from October through February this season.

Portland’s month-to-month three-point numbers were faltering for much of the year. The Blazers hit 39.3 percent of their threes in October. That steadily dropped before hitting a nadir of 35.4 percent in January.

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February saw the team shoot 38.3 percent from three despite going 2-7 during the month. But that then led to this month’s astronomical production from beyond the arc.

The amazing thing about the Trail Blazers’ hot shooting is that it isn’t just coming from one player. Instead, five of the team’s nine rotation players shot above 40.0 percent from distance in March.

The charge is led by shooting guard C.J. McCollum‘s 46.5 percent on 4.4 attempts per game. Allen Crabbe comes off of the bench shooting 44.9 percent on 4.9 attempts per game. Lillard shoots 41.7 percent on a whopping 7.5 three-point attempts a game.

It is also fascinating that Portland didn’t need a high volume of attempts to get to 41.7 percent on the month. The Trail Blazers averaged 24.9 attempts per game. That was only the 22nd-most in the league in March.

The Blazers are basically putting up threes in rhythm. They wait for the shots to come to them instead of forcing the issue. They’re knocking down more than two-fifths of their three-pointers as a reward for their patience.

Heading into April, they won’t need to necessarily shoot 40-plus-percent from outside. However, that patience from outside will be needed to ignite runs or break their opponents backs in key situations.

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