The Portland Trail Blazers’ backcourt duo of Wesley Matthews and Damian Lillard has been lighting up the league from deep this season. Lillard is currently shooting 7.1 threes per game (fourth in the league), but he is somehow still topped by Matthews, who is shooting 7.5 per game.
It is not just the quantity of the threes that they are taking, but, as any Trail Blazer fan could tell you, it’s also the quality. Lillard is shooting a blistering 38.7% from three, but once again, is somehow again bested by Matthews, who is shooting an astounding 40.6%. Both of these numbers are simply incredible when you consider the volume of shots that each player is taking.
While the importance of LaMarcus Aldridge‘s inside out game cannot be understated, I personally find the Blazers’ three-point barrage to be the heart of the team’s offensive attack. And this attack is led by the by Matthews and Lillard, who are combining for 5.9 made threes (equivalent to 17.7 points) every game. On top of this, threes carry a particular value, since the extra point can be crucial for starting or stopping runs.
Given all these accolades, it might be natural to pencil in this Trail Blazers duo as the best shooting backcourt in the league. But, owing to some Western Conference rivals to the south, that is a hotly contested point. The Golden State Warriors boast point guard Stephen Curry and shooting guard Klay Thompson, who are quite prolific shooters in their own right.
Curry is taking 7.6 threes a game and making 39.1% of them, and Thompson is taking 6.9 threes a game while making 43.9% of them. As you can see, it’s pretty much a dead heat in terms of their three-point prowess. Oakland loves their guys, and those of us from Portland wouldn’t trade Matthews or Lillard for anything either.
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Rather than be annoyed at the comparisons, if anything, I love the pseudo-rivalry (used extremely loosely) that is potentially developing between the Warriors and the Trail Blazers. They currently sit at first and second in the Western Conference, and have the first and second most wins in the league. They are both young up and coming teams that hail from the West Coast, with explosive offenses and stingy defenses.
The similarities are so stark it is almost amusing that they extend to each team’s stellar backcourt. For all of the pointless jawing about who was the best backcourt in the league that took place this past off-season, Golden State and Portland both have a fair claim to this title.
Sports exist and continue to exist in large part because fans love discussing with other fans, so for the foreseeable future, there will remain quite the debate over which team has the better backcourt. However, at least at this juncture, there is clearly no right answer. I love defending my Trail Blazers as much as the next guy, but with no truly discernible difference between the duos, I’m more than content sitting back and watching these four guys light the league up.
The Trail Blazers and Warriors have only played once this season, when Portland squandered a late lead to eventually lose by five. They have two remaining games against each other this season, March 24th in Portland and April 9th in Oakland. With both teams staking out a claim to a top spot in the West, these games could go a long way toward determining seeding and home court advantage.