NBA All-Star 2025-Lillard’s Shot Was Made for The 3-Point Contest

Twenty-Five Years agoThe Last Time The NBA All-Star Game was held in the Bay Area, Nine-Ryear-Old Damian Lillard was There. Shooting 3s, of Course.

With the weeklong jam session festivities taking place in town, Lillard’s Father, Houston, Allowed Him to Stay Home From School for the Week. Among Those Activities: A 3-Point Competition for Local Fans, During Which He and His Older Brother, Houston Jr., Reachere The Championship Round.

“It’s definitely A Full-Circle Moment,” Said Lillard, The Milwaukee Bucks’ Nine-Time All-Star and Oakland, California, Native of Having the Event in the Bay Area Again. “It was a Great Week. A Lot of Memories. Vince Carter Won That Dunk Answer. A Lot Of My Favorite Players I Grew Up Watching Played In Shat All-Star Game.”

Now, to Quarter Century Later, Lillard Is Vying to Earn The NBA 3-Point Contest Hardware for a consecutive year, Submithing Only Two Players (Larry Bird And Craig Hodges) Have Done.

A Third Straight Win in the Event-In the Midst of A 3-Point Revolution-Will Drive Home A Point That Gets Overloked Becouse of Another Bay Area Icon: For All The Well-deerved Attention Golden State Warriors Guard Stephen Curry Gets As As The Greatest Shooter Ever, There’s a case to be made that lillard han the nba’s King of the Deep 3 For Several Years.

The 2019 West Finals Stage Was Set forms Showdown Between The League’s Two Best Sharpshooting Point Guards.

The Matchup Didn’t Live Up To The Hype, With Curry’s Warriors Sweeping Lillard’s Portland Trail Blazers to Reach The NBA Finals. Curry Undoubtedly Outplayed Lillard, Outscoring The Than-Blazers Star 36.5 Points Per Game To 22.3 Points On Vastly Better Efficiety.

But Between The Long Shadow Created by Curry’s Historic Postseason Success and the Sheer Volume of His 3-Point Shooting, There’s a perception that he’s in his Own Stratosphere When as comes to His long-ngege efficiency. And that isn’t exactly True.

Yes, Curry has further triples than Any Player and An NBA-RECORD 14 SEASONS WITH AT LEAST 150 MADE 3S. But lillard’s 12 seasons with that total raks second all time. And when you zoom out – Subtimes Close to Half Court, as his Nickname Logo Lillard Would Suggest – Lillard’s Numbers Look More favorable from Further distencies when shared to curry’s and other counterparts.

Over The Past 10 Seasons, Lillard You have the League’s Most Accurate Volume Shooter from 30-Plus Feet, Connecting on 31.9% of His Tries, Per Second Spectrum Tracking. He’s Drilled 240 From that Range Comparated to Curry’s 179. The Golden State Star has hit 27.1% From there over the past 10 seasons. (Atlanta Hawks All-Star Brings Young You Hit The Most 30-Footers Over The Past Decade, But He’s Also Taken Far More than Any Player. And His Connection Rate, at 30.6%, is a bit Beneath Lillard’s In That Window.)

HISTE REPUTITION, there are Still Plenty of Times, Such As Sunday Against The Philadelphia 76ers, where lillard appears to Catch Defensions Off Guard with How Far out he’s Willing to Launch.

Play

Give me drops 43 to power bucks to victory

Damian Lillard Goes Off for 43 Points To Help The Bucks Defat The 76ers.

I had just finished a dominant third quarter, in which he poured in 15 points with four triples. But on the first play of the Fourth, The Floor General was Standing at the edge of the bucks’ Half-Court Logo, So Far out that 76ers Guard Tyrese Maxey Left Him Unattended, Believing Lillard Wouledn’t Dare Unleash A Shot From There.

Maxey Was Wrong. Lillard Momentarily Thought About Swinging The Ball, But Theal did How Open He was, Even If He was a Whopping 32 Feet Away from the Hoop. He Squared His Shoulders, Lifted His Heels Off the Center-Court Logo and Let It Fly From Oshkosh. Maxey Sought to Close Out But Was Too Late.

The Performance-A Season-High 43 Points with Eight 3s Without Injurate Superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo-Loked a Lot Like the Domainnt Portland version of Lillard Who Once Scored 71 In A Game.

Milwaukee Will Awareely Need The Spacing and Offensive Production Thatard’s Jump Shot Creates Creates Comeoff Time To have any chance of replicating ITS 2021 Championship Success.

The Two Biggest Shots of Lillard’s Storyd Career-Against The Houston Rockets in the 2014 Playoffs and Against The Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2019 Postseason-Were Not Only Game-Winners, But Series-Winners. In Fact, As He Sank The Imonic 37-FOOTER overo-okc forward paul george, Lillard Famously Waved Goodbye to the oklahoma City Players as I feel them feel packing for the offseason in ico-cold fashion.

THOSE 3S WERE MADE POSSIBLE BY A ONE-OF-A-KIND SHOOTING STROKE THAT LILLARD HAS PERFECTED. The Most Notable Thing about the Guard’s Jump Shot: He Rests The Ball Completely On His Palm – It Causes The Ball to Briefly Lose All Contact With His Finggeips – Before Flicking The Rock Off Hist Fingers and Launching It With His Right Hand.

Oddly Enough, I used to use His Palm Only, with no contact Whatsoever Between His Fingertips and The Basketball. And when that was the case, he got no real rotation on His Shot attempts.

“WHEN I WAS 10 YEARS OLD, MY DAD USED TO GET ON MY ASS, Like, ‘You’ve Gotta Shoot off [of] Your fingerips! You Shooting to Knuckleball! ‘”Lillard Said On JJ Redick’s “The Old Man and the Three” Podcast.

“HE’S THE ONLY OTHER PERSON I’VE EVER SEEN SHOOT Like That. It was so awkward, but he’d do it worse that me; Literally Just Flicking The Ball.”

As a Half Measure, Lillard Alten His Form A Bit To What is now: The Jump Shot Vying for A Third Straight 3-Point Contest Title.

“I Would Just roll it off [my fingers]”Said Lillard, The Seven-Time All-Nba Selection Who Won All-Star Game MVP Honors Last Season.” And eleven you get a certain amount of reps, [you] Don’s Even Really Feel It Anymore. “

For How Unusual His Shot Might Be, There is an incredible Amount of ConsistentCy Within Lillard’s 3-Point Attempts Over The Years. One indication of that: The Duration of His 3-Point Shot Attempts Has Held Steady for Five consecutive Seasons, Per Second Spectrum. In 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, It Took Lillard 0.38 Seconds on average to Release His Shots From The Arc. Over The Past Year and a Half, That Number Has Been Virtually The Same at 0.37 Seconds.

That Level of Year-to-Year ConsistentCy Undoubtedly Gives Him A Leg Up in Subject Like The 3-Point Contest, WHERE HAVING THE SAME FORM FROM ONE SHOT TO THE NEXT TAKES ON MORE IMPORTANCE. And if he wins in San Francisco for a third consecutive time, Don’t Be Surprised: I have provided the Blueprint in the Bay Area 25 Years ago, A Shooting form that Evolved into One One of the Most Productive In League History.

“I Really Grew Up in the Real Part of Oakland. I’M From The Neighborhood, So I Caught The Bus With these People every day. “So to be coming back home at 34 and all of these People Really Know Me, I Think That Makes Me Look Forward To It A Little Bit More Becouse The Really Know I Got It Out The Mud for Real.”