The Golden State Warriors were a 3-pointer away from tying Game 1 and potentially sending it into overtime after an impressive, late fourth quarter comeback.
They fell just short, though, with Jordan Poole launching a much-maligned deep 3 that barely connected with the rim.
There’s been much debate about the shot and whether it was a good look or not. ESPN’s Tim Legler joined Tolbert and Copes on Wednesday and discussed it.
While it wasn’t an irredeemable shot, Legler had some issues with it. Firstly, he didn’t set himself up for success with his positioning.
“When Steph was being trapped, right at that time, Jordan Poole should have been sliding to his left and down closer towards the line,” Legler said. “Like you’ve got to be anticipating this ball is coming to Draymond, not me. Because Draymond’s standing there, so now I’ve gotta create some space for the next pass. And he should have been closing that distance to the line to make that 26-foot jumper instead of 31.”
The other issue Legler had was that while it could be argued as a good shot given it wasn’t strongly contested, Poole’s body positioning at the time of receiving the pass put him in a bad.
“If that’s 31-footer when you have to catch it with your shoulders not square to the basket… Jordan Poole, to turn toward the ball, catch it, turn square, his feet are planted on the ground like two nails are in them, very difficult to generate momentum to get the ball there.
And you can even see, his mechanics broke down. He didn’t he didn’t shoot that normally. He kind of heaved it. He turned, he bailed out on the shot because he hit the ground and backpedaled. But he didn’t stick with it. The reason is because he was a little bit off balance because of what I’m describing.”
Poole had perhaps his best game of the playoffs so far on Tuesday night, scoring 21 points (7-of-15) and adding 6 assists and a steal with zero turnovers. Golden State may need another efficient performance from him to even the series on Thursday night.
