Kyle Korver's cold streak in the playoffs has an explanation, but is there an answer?
There's no question that the Atlanta Hawks are sunk without a healthy DeMarre Carroll. But even if the Junkyard Dog is able to come back strong, offer his offensive versatility and defend LeBron James, the Hawks are still in trouble as long as Kyle Korver continues to struggle from the floor.
After a regular season in which it was more surprising when a Korver 3-pointer missed than when it went in, that spectacular accuracy has abandoned the Atlanta forward. Actually, that's an understatement; Korver's 35.6 percent shooting from deep in the playoffs would have tied him for 38th best rate in the NBA during the regular season (minimum 100 attempts), per Basketball-Reference.
So did a wizard put a curse on Korver that's yet to be lifted? Not quite, although Washington gave the Cavaliers a blueprint for how to limit Atlanta's open looks from deep. As SB Nation's Jesus Gomez writes:
"It's not that Korver is moving less or his teammates are not passing him the ball as much. The average speed and distance traveled per 48 minutes is almost identical in the regular season and in the playoffs, and the same applies to his touches. Defenses are just doing a better job of staying with him, with Bradley Beal in the conference semifinals and Iman Shumpert on Game 1 of the East finals navigating screens well and closing out on time. That forces Korver to put the ball on the floor, a setting in which he is not comfortable."
And when Korver does start to get a sliver of daylight, teams are switching like crazy in order to prevent Atlanta from getting into a rhythm. And that's what should worry Hawks fans: as long as Atlanta is unable to punish teams for switching, Korver will likely stay quiet.
The Hawks took the league by storm with their brand of team-first, superstar-less basketball. While it's not accurate to say that a team needs a star in the playoffs, Atlanta is learning the hard way just how difficult things become when you don't have an offensive focus to take attention away from the actions you're trying to run. And it's quite the coincidence that it's a LeBron James-led team that threatens to make that lesson most clear.
(h/t SB Nation)
Photo Credit: Brett Davis/USA Today Sports
