Ray’s Hot Night In A Historical Perspective

Posted by Brian Robb on Jan 7, 2011 141584 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2011%2F01%2F07%2Fputting-rays-night-in-a-historic-perspective%2F+Ray%27s+Hot+Night+In+A+Historical+Perspective2011-01-07+17%3A48%3A54Brian+Robbhttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D14158

On the heels of perhaps the most entertaining (and nerve-wracking) win of the Celtics young season, there’s one facet of the game that stands out to me more than anything else two days later. Ray Allen’s shooting display.

No, I’m not talking about those two free throws he bricked in the last minute. I am speaking about his 13-of-16 masterpiece for an jaw-dropping 81 percent shooting. These weren’t layups either as evidenced by his shot chart that Hayes made a point of his displaying in his recap on Thursday.

What a beautiful sight. The stellar numbers got me thinking though. The numbers on the surface aren’t completely ridiculous. Here’s the catch: it’s one thing for a big man to go 13-of-16 in a game when he’s taking all his shots within ten feet and dunking half of them. I’m sure Shaq’s done it more than a few times in his career.

For a guard though, to put up that many shots (16) and shoot a ridiculous 81 percent? It’s not something I’ve seen often….thus I made a point to head to Basketball-Reference to dig up just how we’ve seen these kinds of numbers in a game from any kind of guard….ever.

The answer: it’s unsurprisingly rare. It’s been done just 33 times since 1986 by guards where they’ve hit (at least) 13-of-16 shots, including once more by Ray in a losing effort back when he was with Milwaukee as a 24-year-old.

Wednesday night’s effort by Allen though made him the oldest person to put up that kind of fantastic line by a guard in the last 25 years. The 35-year-old is more than two years older than everyone else who completed the feat, the vast majority of which did so in their prime, with names like Reggie Miller, Mitch Richmond, Dale Ellis, Magic Johnson leading the way along with some surprising ones (Jarrett Jack? Anthony Parker?)

The fact Ray can still be this hot, while playing so many minutes is just example number 1,342 of how fans are spoiled here in Boston. If he keeps it up, that 10 million dollar player option he has for next year…..may be a bargain.