Every May the three-point analytics crowd rediscovers that mid-range shots appear at elevated rates in playoff basketball and interprets it as a failure of modern offensive philosophy. The real explanation is simple: playoff defenses are specifically prepared for the plays that generated catch-and-shoot threes in the regular season. When corner three actions are taken away by a defense that has game-planned for them specifically, the mid-range pull-up becomes the pressure release valve. It's not that mid-range is secretly good. It's that eliminating it specifically opens corner threes, and when those get taken too, mid-range is the second-best available option. Context over ideology.

]]>https://spveforpit.com/topic/207/playoff-mid-range-why-it-comes-back-in-every-postseason-chesRSS for NodeSun, 26 Apr 2026 13:19:10 GMTTue, 21 Apr 2026 08:20:00 GMT60The Giannis health tracking is the most important NBA story right now. Milwaukee's offense reverts to league-average without him as the primary creator.

]]>https://spveforpit.com/post/438https://spveforpit.com/post/438Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:27:27 GMTEvery May the three-point analytics crowd rediscovers that mid-range shots appear at elevated rates in playoff basketball and interprets it as a failure of modern offensive philosophy. The real explanation is simple: playoff defenses are specifically prepared for the plays that generated catch-and-shoot threes in the regular season. When corner three actions are taken away by a defense that has game-planned for them specifically, the mid-range pull-up becomes the pressure release valve. It's not that mid-range is secretly good. It's that eliminating it specifically opens corner threes, and when those get taken too, mid-range is the second-best available option. Context over ideology.

]]>https://spveforpit.com/post/338https://spveforpit.com/post/338Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:20:00 GMT