Boston Celtics’ Ray Allen records his career best National Basketball Association season
Boston Celtics shooting guard Ray Allen has quietly had the best season of his career. Even though he is 35, Allen is still cool, calm and collected on the field. That’s why he is considered one of the most accurate three-point and free-throw shooters in
National Basketball Association history.
After surpassing Reggie Miller’s mark of 2,560 three-point field goals on 10
February, 2011 the felicitously nicknamed “Sugar Ray” has been quietly going about his shooting and is all set to clinch a career-high in field-goal percentage. Although the Celtics had it rough in the second part of the season when it came to shooting
prowess, as far as individual shooting contention was concerned, Allen excelled in that regard and finished the season on the cusp of reaching the elite 50-40-90 club.
Ever since the three-point line was first introduced in 1979-80, only seven players were able to shoot 50 percent from the field, 90 percent from the paint and 40 percent from the three-point range. Mark Price, Reggie Miller, Steve Kerr, Dirk Nowitzki, Jose
Calderon have all done it once, Larry Bird achieved it twice while Steve Nash has attained it four times.
When the Celtics ended their season with a win against the New York Knicks on 13 April, the veteran guard finished career-highs with .491 field-goal percentage, three-point .444 percent from downtown and 0.881 from the charity stripe. The only real struggle
Ray faced this season was his proficiency from the free throw line. A .893 career free throw shooter and a guy who has finished above 90 percent from the free throw line eight times in his 14 year career, Allen was below par before the All-Star weekend. In
the 54 games played during that span, he managed to shoot just .857 from the paint.
Although Allen failed to register his name in the much flaunted shooting list, he has been one of the most pivotal cogs in the Celtics’ campaign this year. Starting all but three games for the Celtics this season, Allen has spent 36.1 minutes at an average
on court than any other player during this year, despite being the one of the older players on the team.
Besides his shooting prowess, Allen has also been a beast at the back-end of the court. The shooting guard has been a pivotal component of Doc Rivers’ defensive strategies that have strangled many offensive power-house teams this season. Given the workload
that Allen has to carry at the offence, his 3.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 0.91 steals per game were all the more significant.
As the play-offs have begun, the Celtics are all set to take on the offensively ominous New York Knicks, featuring the like of Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire. Allen is surely going to be an instrumental part of the Celtics’ scheme of things.
Boston will rely on Allen for both the offence and defence during their play-off run. Allen’s quickness and superb shooting ability can give the Celtics the extra boost that they will need in their offence. His three-point prowess is a skill that Boston
will be looking for during the clutch play-off games. The best that Boston can hope is that Allen continues to play as he has done all season if they are to have any chance of advancing in the play-offs.
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