Four Interesting Stats from Sixers-Nets Game 3

6.0 3PA: Tobias Harris took six three-pointers in Game 3 and made them all. Forget about the efficiency, let’s talk about the total. Harris has played 27 games as a Sixer and he has attempted at least six threes in just 10 of those games. Given that Tobi has proven the ability to consistently hit above 40% from behind the arc, he should be taking at minimum six attempts per game. (Would you be happy with JJ Redick averaging just five threes a game?)

By my eye, only one of Harris’ threes were a result of a team effort to get him a look, and it came off of a screen from Boban. Everything else was sort of a “oh hey, no one’s near Tobias, I’ll pass to him” or a dribble pull-up. The Nets really slept on Tobi — he had comfortable spacing on all but one of his triples.

According to Cleaning The Glass, threes made up just 32% of Harris’ shot profile in the regular season with Philly — that ranks in the 34th percentile for his position. Even worse, corner threes accounted for just 6% of Harris’ shots in the regular season. Harris has to improve his shot selection to punish teams who let him freely roam the perimeter. But I’d go even further to say that the Sixers should be running more set plays to get Tobias looks from deep, and especially in the corner. Yes, he’s been in a shooting slump since joining the Sixers, but he’s got way too smooth and quick of a jumper for six threes to be a relatively high number.

20.5% from deep: After shooting over 40% from deep in Games 1 & 2, the Nets were due for regression, and boy did it hit hard, coming in at just over 20%. The Nets sank just eight of their 39 attempts from distance, with Joe Harris (0-4 from 3PT) and D’Angelo Russell (2-9) being total duds. When I looked into the Nets catch-and-shoot numbers from Game 3, NBA Stats has them totaling six points on 21 total catch-and-shoots, with 20 of those being from three. That comes out to 0.286 points per attempt — not good!

You know what they say: live by the three, die by the three.

35.0 FTA: The Sixers as a team took 35 free throws in Game 3 and connected at 85.7%. Philly is already the playoffs’ biggest beneficiary from the charity stripe, as before and after Game 3, they led/lead all playoff teams in FTA by a comfortable margin. But it was a bit surprising that the Sixers were able to rack up so many trips to the line considering they were on the road AND without Joel Embiid, who finished the regular season 3rd in the NBA for total free throws attempted behind only James Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The catalyst was Ben Simmons, who played one of the most aggressive offensive games we’ve ever seen out of him (and arguably his best performance ever given the circumstances). His 11 FTA would rank tied for 3rd most for Ben in a single game on the season. What’s more impressive/encouraging is that he hit nine of 11 free throws, with a handful in response to the hack-a-Simmons strategy implemented by Brooklyn.

40.0% OREB Rate: According to Cleaning The Glass, the Sixers rebounded 40.0% of their misses in the halfcourt. That’s crazy. The Sixers have a clear size advantage over the Nets, even with Jo out, and it’s paying off. 2nd chance points isn’t something a team should count on, but I think everyone from the players on the court to the fans sitting on their couches understand just how deflating it feels when a defense forces a miss only to have the offense scoop it up and score.