NBA Playoffs 2018-19: 3 Talking points from NBA Playoffs - April 24th - Lillard Eliminates OKC and More

#3 Was Dame's 37-footer buzzer beater game-winner a 'bad shot'?

Damian Lillard

With the game tied at 115-115 and less than 10 seconds left in the game, Lillard squared up with Paul George nearly 37 feet from the rim. With 2 seconds remaining, Dame took a stepback trademark logo Lillard three-pointer which went in as the clock expired.

“That’s a bad, bad shot,” George said of the long three-pointer, in the postgame press conference. “I don’t care what anybody says. That’s a bad shot. But hey, he made it. That story won’t be told that it was a bad shot. We live with that.”

Despite putting aside the sore loser argument, George's statement about the classic game-winner doesn't seem to make sense. And we have stats to back that up. According to ESPN's Kirk Goldsberry,

As a whole, the league made just 25.9 percent of shots from that distance (30 to 40 feet), so it's fair to say that for most dudes, shots from that range aren't very "good." Lillard isn't most dudes. He sank 39.2 percent of his shots from 30 to 40 feet this season.

Clearly, it is players like Stephen Curry, Trae Young, Damian Lillard that are redifining the claims of a good or bad shot with their ridiculous range. Therefore, in modern day NBA basketball, in order to ascertain whether it's a good shot or bad shot, you have to take into account who's shooting the ball.

Here is your ultimate @Dame_Lillard game winning shot compilation video #ripcity pic.twitter.com/eyC3dvb7md

— NBC Sports Northwest (@NBCSNorthwest) April 24, 2019