Malcolm Brogdon missed a crucial three-pointer in the overtime period of the Boston Celtics’ win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday, and his errant shot might have been helped by Boston’s bench.
The Celtics bench (probably) helped force Malcolm Brogdon miss a crucial 3 in overtime
This is the best unseen phenomenon in the league.
That’s Guerschon Yabusele yelling and screaming as Brogdon attempts it, and while it’s impossible to tell whether that had any effect on what happened, the result did work out for the Celtics. You can see it here:
That’s a known phenomenon, one that has hidden in plain sight for decades across this sport. I wrote about it earlier this season — here’s a snippet.
That, in a nutshell, describes one of the most enjoyable dynamic in the entire NBA: one that typically hides in plain sight. No major sport brings active participants so close to resting opponents with such frequency. Every player shooting in front of an opponent’s bench knows he’ll be yelled at, and most shooters will turn around to gloat if the shot goes in.
I spoke to six different players who frequently shoot corner threes for this story, and none of the six would admit to ever being distracted by something an opponent said. Crawford has honed his approach and dropped the trash talk, but he still loves when opponents try it.
“I laugh at it inside,” Crawford told SB Nation. “Because I’m like, ‘I can’t wait to make it so I can turn around and look at ‘em.’”
It’s better when the three-point shooter gets involved. In a high stakes situation like this, there’s too much on the line for a shooter to bother, but that often happens during the regular season or earlier in games. Players will make the shot and then turn around to look at the bench — The Look, we coined it.
But there was no look from Brogdon on that crucial miss, and Boston ended up winning 113-107. Ah well.
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