Basketball Shooting

Why do you want to become a great shooter? What will come of all that time in the gym? The lonely hours spent perfecting your form, honing your craft. The great ones have put in the work so that come game time, when their team needs them most, they're ready, they deliver.

Last night was yet another example of what separates the truly great shooters from the good. Our favourite NBA shooter, Ray Allen coming through for the Boston Celtics when they need him most.

Game 1, Ray shot just 1 of 12 from the field. The truly great shooters know that everyone has bad days and they have the confidence to bounce back and keep shooting. They don't shy away from the spotlight, they revel in it and they want to show the world that an off-night won't stop them.

So we get to game 2, 10 seconds left, scores tied:



For the record, here's Ray's line from the night:

Boston Celtics (1-1)

			Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
P.Pierce	F	43:55	8-19	0-1	2-3	+5	0	8	8	3	2	1	4	0	4	18
G.Davis	F	41:17	12-21	0-0	2-3	+20	4	5	9	0	3	1	1	1	1	26
K.Perkins	C	32:19	7-9	0-0	2-5	+12	7	5	12	0	3	1	3	2	2	16
R.Allen	G	38:47	9-18	6-10	6-6	+5	0	3	3	5	4	0	0	0	1	30
R.Rondo	G	40:03	7-18	0-1	5-8	+17	7	5	12	16	1	5	2	0	5	19

With Ray Allen's heroics, what will get slightly less talk than it deserves is the shooting performance of young gun, Ben Gordon from the Chicago Bulls. Gordon has had a great season (coincidentally in a contract year) and this was one of his best.

Chicago Bulls (1-1)

			Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
J.Salmons	F	39:24	6-17	1-5	4-5	-7	1	1	2	2	1	1	2	1	3	17
T.Thomas	F	20:25	2-7	0-1	2-2	-21	0	4	4	0	2	0	1	6	1	6
J.Noah	C	38:50	6-9	0-0	1-1	-4	3	5	8	3	4	2	1	4	0	13
B.Gordon	G	43:31	14-24	6-11	8-9	-1	0	1	1	0	2	1	0	0	0	42
D.Rose	G	34:25	5-11	0-0	0-0	+1	2	4	6	7	2	0	2	2	0	10