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#Nets’ Kevin Durant knows answer for his 3-point shooting struggles

“Nets’ Kevin Durant knows answer for his 3-point shooting struggles”

Kevin Durant, off to his most prolific season since his last scoring title in 2014, is being serenaded with MVP chants.

The Nets star is succeeding despite an anomaly in his shooting: He has the best field-goal percentage of his career (.548), but the worst 3-point percentage (.346) since his rookie campaign.

The answer is simple, backed up by both advanced stats and the simple eye test: He’s not getting clean looks. Defenses have been bent on stopping him, and the Nets haven’t done enough to free him up.

“I’m never going to get no looks from the 3 unless I’m just dribbling up or try to,” Durant said, before pausing and acknowledging, “I’m not going to get a wide-open 3. … I’m not going to get a guy leaving my body to help somebody driving so I can get a swing-swing 3. It’s just not going to happen. I’d love to get more 3s up.”

Nets
Kevin Durant shoots the ball against the Magic.
Corey Sipkin

Catch-and-shoot looks have accounted for just 11.9 percent of Durant’s shots, his least since the league started tracking such stats in 2013. For perspective, in his first season with the Nets in 2020-21, he was at 18.2 percent on such shots.

Durant’s open looks (with a defender within 4-6 feet) were his lowest ever, at just 9.8 percent. By comparison, in his first Nets season, that number was 15.8 percent. And his wide-open looks (with no defender within 6 feet) are a miniscule 2.1 percent, a fraction of what he’s accustomed to. His first two years with the Warriors, he was at 8.0 and 7.1, and his last season with the Thunder, he was at 7.7.

Joe Harris showed some positive signs Monday that he may be shaking out of his funk. After shooting 3-for-24 overall in his previous four games, he scored a season-high 17 points against the Magic and was on the floor in the crucial endgame moments.

“Overall, great. He finishes the game with that group out there. It shows the confidence that we have in him, the trust that we have in him,” coach Jacque Vaughn said.

“Even when he’s not making shots, he’s going to be in the right place, do the right thing, be in the right coverage majority of the time. That’s important in team sports. … The shots are going to come around. I think we all believe it’s going to come around. … At least I do.”

A career .433 shooter from 3-point range (third among active players), Harris is at just .318 heading into the Nets’ game Wednesday versus the Wizards. What does he tell himself after those misses?

Nets
Joe Harris
Corey Sipkin

“Reset. You can’t dwell on it,” Harris said with a shrug. “[My shot] feels fine. There’s some that feel better than others: the ones that go in. The ones I’m missing left or right, I can feel those ones as the shot goes up that it’s probably off.”


David Duke Jr. (non-COVID illness) is questionable to face Washington. Ben Simmons (left knee), T.J. Warren (left foot), Yuta Watanabe (right hamstring strain) and Alondes Williams (right adductor strain) are out.


The Nets haven’t revealed the results of an MRI exam Watanabe had Monday.

Vernon Carey Jr. (G-League), Johnny Davis (G-League), Devon Dotson (G-League), Rui Hachimura (ankle), Isaiah Todd (G-League) and Delon Wright (hamstring) are out for Washington.

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