In his 66th game with the team, Houston Rockets guard Ben McLemore finally took a shot that wasn’t in the paint or from 3-point range.
To say the least, it wasn’t by design.
In the final seconds of Tuesday’s first half at the NBA “bubble,” McLemore was given the ball in a transition sequence, when he was caught in between a cut to the basket and backing out to behind the arc.
Fortunately for the 27-year-old, he swished the mid-range shot after a pair of fantastic passes from James Harden and Russell Westbrook, cutting Portland’s lead to five points heading into the second half.
The Rockets have raved about McLemore’s fit for months, in part because of how well he accepts the team’s analytics-driven focus on shots behind the 3-point arc and those at the rim. His shot chart for the 2019-20 NBA season, which can be seen below, clearly speaks to that approach.
McLemore is averaging 9.9 points in 22.6 minutes per game this season, including a team-best 40.2% on 3-pointers. That’s an important figure for the Rockets, who shoot the most treys of any NBA team.
But if he also hits an occasional mid-range shot as the clock expires, GM Daryl Morey and head coach Mike D’Antoni will gladly take it.
