Marc Gasol's 3-Point Shooting Has Been Off Since NBA's Return

The Toronto Raptors were just out of sync all afternoon Sunday against the Boston Celtics.

They turned in one of their worst offensive performances of the season and couldn't get anything going in the halfcourt, scoring just 73.8 points per 100 halfcourt possessions, their fifth-worst performance in the halfcourt this year, according to Cleaning the Glass.

Prior to the playoffs, I wrote about how Marc Gasol would be one of the keys to opening up the Raptors' halfcourt offense. He does a phenomenal job passing the ball and his nearly 40% 3-point shooting in the regular season creates space for Toronto's other scorers.

The problem lately has been Gasol's inability to make 3-point shots with any regularity. He's shooting just 9-for-35 (25.7%) since the NBA returned from the COVID-19 pandemic, almost a 15% drop off from the 40.3% he was shooting before the hiatus.

It's allowed opponents to sag off of him when he's on the perimeter without much concern for his ability to make them pay for their defensive decisions.

Against the Celtics, Gasol took three 3-point shots, all of which were classified as "Wide Open" by NBA.com, meaning the nearest defender was six-plus feet away from him according to the league's play tracking metrics. He missed all three of the shots.

While one bad shooting night isn't cause for concern, it's been a bit of a trend lately for Gasol who is shooting just 22.6% on "Wide Open" 3-pointers since the pandemic, compared to 42.5% before the break.

Why exactly that is remains a little unclear. Maybe it's just an extended slump for Gasol or maybe his 10-plus pound weight loss over the break is throwing his mechanics off a little bit.

Either way, Gasol didn't really have an answer for why he's been in a funk.

"Just got to keep shooting," he said. "When you’re open, you shoot ‘em and shoot ‘em with rhythm and follow through. ... If that’s the read you take on a 3-point shot, you’re open and you feel good, you take it. If that’s not it, you quickly change your mind and play to the next action.

Ultimately, if the Raptors are going to succeed in the playoffs, they're going to need their big Spaniard to start making defences pay when they leave him open.