Outside of scoring this on a one-legged fade-away from the elbow, this was about the most Dirk Nowitzki way to get his 25,000 point.
He’s 20 feet out from the rim, faces up on Robin Lopez, takes a couple jab steps to create just enough space, then takes a rainbow-arc jumper that finds the bottom of the net. Lopez didn’t defend this poorly — he got his man to take a long, contested two point jumper. But it’s Dirk, so it fell and he looked good doing it.
You keep reading from advanced stats guys (and guys who believe that there is real value in the numbers, such as myself) that the long two-point jumper is the worst shot in basketball. It is. It has a lower percentage chance of going in than other two pointers and you don’t get the bonus of the extra point if you take a step back. For you kids reading this at home, don’t take that shot. But there are exceptions to every rule, there are guys who can make a living on those shots. Nowitzki is one of them. He will destroy you from there. He’s made a Hall of Fame career out of it.
