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Daily Digits: The Wizards’ outside shooting has vanished

NBA: Washington Wizards at Golden State Warriors Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Daily Digits is a new daily feature we’re doing at Bullets Forever this year where we take a look at stats about the Wizards. We’ll dive into the numbers, add some context, and discuss how they affect the product on the court.

Today’s stat is Washington’s rank in 3-point percentage this season, which is...

28th

The Wizards’ 5-of-27 performance from deep in Sunday’s loss to the Clippers was the clearest sign yet that the team has lost their mojo from deep this season. Even though they’re attempting the fifth-most threes per game this season, they’re only making 31.0 percent of them. Only the Thunder and Nuggets are shooting it worse beyond the arc.

There’s usually a dip in shooting efficiency whenever you increase volume, but it shouldn’t be this drastic. When you’re making less than one-third of your threes, it starts becoming less effective than some shots you could be taking inside the arc.

What’s odd though is most of the Wizards’ high-volume outside shooters are doing just fine. Bradley Beal is shooting 37.5 percent. Kelly Oubre and Markieff Morris are both shooting over 40 percent. Austin Rivers is only making one-third of his threes, which is a tad below average, but nothing to fret over.

The real issue has been John Wall and Otto Porter. Wall is only 3-of-25 from deep this season. Porter is 5-of-23. If you took those two players out of the picture, the Wizards are shooting a much more respectable 35.1 percent from deep as a team. Unfortunately, that’s not how basketball works. The Wizards have to figure out a way to get them back on track because they’re not going anywhere shooting this poorly this often.