THREE-POINT SHOT AFFECTING YOUTH PLAY

The Portland Trail Blazers took care of the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday night, 118-103, behind a 40-point performance from CJ McCollum. I had the pleasure of watching the game in person at the Moda Center, and a few things stuck out to me.

The first is that the atmosphere in the arena just wasn’t as electric as it has been in the past. In my previous visits, there always seemed to be that excitement that came from just being around thousands of other fans supporting the team against whoever the opponent was, whether it was a top-seeded Golden State Warriors squad, or a lackluster Phoenix Suns team struggling to keep it together. But when it came to this game, it just seemed to be missing. Fans only really cheered when something superb happened, otherwise they were more focused on socializing than actually supporting the team.

This seemed odd to me, because it wasn’t as if the Blazers were playing a throwaway game against a scrub team. They were playing an 8-1 Milwaukee team with a beast of a superstar, in Giannis Antetokounmpo. Though the game was mainly in Portland’s control, it was still an exciting game to watch. But it seemed the only time the fans really cared was when trying to get a free T-shirt and cheering on McCollum when he was flirting with a 40 piece.

The other thing I realized was that the three-pointer is killing basketball.

The Blazers are no stranger to letting role players torch them, so it came as no surprise when Brook Lopez, veteran center for the Bucks, had 16 points at the half. The only problem here was that Lopez was four-of-seven from three-point land. Again, this isn’t the biggest of surprises, because centers have been expanding the floor more and more often recently.

My only problem with this was once the teams came back from the locker room at halftime, I watched as a 7-foot starting center did not even take a single step inside the three-point line for the remaining 9 minutes of game time. This is just proof that the arc has taken over the NBA.

Teams are short-circuiting fast breaks to try to get a three, teams are taking upwards of 40 shots from behind the arc, and no one seems interested in taking it to the rack or pulling up for a mid-range jump shot.

Watching this just makes my heart sink. Children look up to these players and they see that the three-pointer is popular, so that’s all they want to do now. Jacking up shots that take every ounce of muscle in their bodies just to get it to the rim, time after time after time. Meanwhile, they can’t even get down which foot they are supposed to jump off in order to shoot a layup.

One part of the Blazers that I really enjoy watching is what I see in McCollum, Evan Turner, and Zach Collins. The one thing these three have in common is that they are not afraid to go inside. Though CJ falls in love with the three at times, his real bread-and-butter is the pull-up, mid-range jumper. Turner, though he is not a good three-point shooter by any means, is an absolute assassin when it comes to the 15- to 20-footer.

As for Collins, he has expanded his game to behind the arc, but that is mainly to adapt to the era we are in. Zach is not afraid to muscle around in the paint. Though night after night his body will take a toll from the rough play of being a big man, he still sticks to his roots and holds down the paint as big men like Lopez should do, instead of floating around the arc all night.

The only way I see this issue being fixed is to move the three-point line back. But even then, with how kids are playing nowadays, the three ball isn’t going anywhere and has completely taken over the game.