The San Antonio Spurs’ best shooter at the midway point of the season has provided a spark to a high-flying bench offense.
Most games from the San Antonio Spurs start one of two ways.
Either LaMarcus Aldridge or DeMar DeRozan are hot from midrange, or the starters struggle to generate points while missing some ugly, tough shots.
But then the Spurs’ bench checks in to the game, and it’s reminiscent of the pace-and-space days of San Antonio’s last title team that destroyed LeBron and the Heat in 2014.
A lynchpin of that pace-and-space bench offense has been the shooting ability of Davis Bertans.
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Bertans is shooting a league-leading 47.6% from three this season.
The Spurs have an offensive rating of 119.5 when Bertans is on the floor compared to 109.8 when he’s on the bench.
According to NBA.com, over 75% of Bertans’ shots come from behind the three-point line and 65% of his shots are catch-and-shoot threes. Davis is hitting nearly 50% of his catch-and-shoot three attempts this season.
San Antonio’s pace-and-space second unit has given Bertans a ton of quality looks from deep. NBA.com’s trackers determined that 64.3% of his three-point attempts were either deemed “open” or “wide open”.
When Bertans does see someone closing out hard on him, he’s able to give a pump fake and drive to the hoop to create a layup for himself or collapse the defense and find the open guy.
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Bertans’ lethal shooting ability opens up the entire offense for the second unit, which is why the league-leading three-point shooter claims our Best Shooter Award.
Check out who took home the rest of our Midseason Awards: