Davis, Duncan, Deterrence, Domincance

Basketball is a very funny game.

Last night, the Warriors attempted 53 shots from beyond the 3-point line. The Lakers attempted just 25. Despite this, according to player tracking data, the two teams had almost the exact same shot quality: Golden State's expected effective field goal percentage was 50.9%, while Los Angeles' was 51.7%.

The way this happened, obviously, is that the Lakers took significantly more shots in the paint. Of L.A.’s 92 shot attempts, 47 of them (more than half!) came from either the restricted area or the back half of the paint. By contrast, just 35 of Golden State’s 106 shots (just south of a third) were attempted from the same areas.

Not only that, but the Lakers converted those shots at a significantly higher rate: They went 27 of 47 in the lane (57.4%), while the Warriors went just 14 of 35 (40%).

According to Second Spectrum, it was Golden State’s worst paint-shooting game of the entire season. The biggest reason for this: Who else? Anthony Davis.