Paul George Is Statistically Wrong: Damian Lillard Deep 3 Was a Fine Shot

One of the crazy things about sports is how a one-off moment will cause a narrative butterfly effect in which everything associated with it will be remembered as part of the package. In the case of Damian Lillard’s bonkers deep three to send the Thunder packing late Tuesday night, we’ll remember the shot, Lillard waving good-bye, and Paul George in disbelief during the postgame press conference insisting that Lillard took a bad shot.

Not only was George wrong because the shot happened to go in, he was also wrong about the underlying merits:

Note how Goldsberry’s first tweet says you’re not supposed to be able to shoot from there — but if you’re Lillard and you can be expected to make it 39% of the time, you let it loose and live with the results.