If you haven't been paying attention to Daniel Gafford's box score lately (and chances are you haven't), how long until the Dallas Mavericks big man broke Wilt Chamberlain's NBA record for consecutive field goals made? I may have missed it as it approached. .
Chamberlain scored 35 points in a row in 1967.
After going 5-for-5 in Dallas' win over Golden State on Wednesday, Gafford had made 33 consecutive shots over his last five games. Unfortunately, Gafford missed his first shot in the Mavericks' nightcap against the Thunder on Thursday, and unfortunately his run ended here.
Before that first miss, Gafford wasn't a household name, but he actually had a unique aptitude to challenge and potentially break this Chamberlain mark.
First, you can't be a jump shooter if you're going to make 35 consecutive buckets. Gafford is not a jump shooter. Entering Thursday, 366 of his 376 attempts came from inside the paint, the vast majority from within the 4-foot restriction, and he was at a clip of over 77%. There is. He has only taken 69 shots other than layups and dunks this season, according to NBA.com statistics.
Simply put, Gafford is very selective about the shots he takes. Those are almost always close-range opportunities, so he doesn't miss them often. In fact, Gafford is on pace to become the NBA's all-time leader in career field goal percentage. I'm sure he didn't know. That certainly wasn't the case.
Among all players with at least 2,000 shot attempts, DeAndre Jordan's 67.4% conversion rate ranks among the best of all time. Gafford has attempted 1,527 shots so far, and while he's still shy of 2,000 shots, he currently has a field goal percentage of 70.6.
And now, believe it or not, Gafford is in a position to be even more efficient. You're talking about a 7-foot-tall rim-rolling athlete who creates as many chances and utilizes as many of the same lanes as Kyrie Irving, plus Luka Doncic, the league's best lob/roll creator. It's about pairing up. As Luke. All five of Gafford's buckets on Wednesday came on assists from either Luka or Kyrie.
Like all of Dallas' big players, his job is simple. As long as Gafford is getting to the rim, whether it's a lob or a roll pass, a post pin or a seal, or a flash to open space or the offensive boards, he's going to go. He enjoys dunks and layups almost exclusively.
“My philosophy is definitely to be consistent,” Gafford said after Monday's 9-for-9 victory over Chicago. “I want to do everything whether I have someone in front of me or no one in front of me. At the end of the day, it's either you dunk it or you put it at the rim.” ”
In fact, 17 of Gafford's 33 straight buckets were dunks, including all five on Wednesday, and 31 of them were made while at least a foot inside the restricted area (2 were not). The only times were about 6 inches from the outside). Perhaps five of them have been at least slightly contested. We had to have a few friendly conversations along the way, but most of the time we were talking about rabbits.
Not to mention, Chamberlain holds many NBA records (68 alone, 72 total), some of which will likely never be broken: 100 point game, 50 PPG in a season, 37.6 PPG in a year Rookie, 6 70 point games, 32 60 point games (including 4 straight in 1962)…the list goes on forever.
But 35 consecutive field goals is a pretty impressive number, and while Gafford doesn't seem like the most likely name on the bingo card to break Wilt's record, he came dangerously close.
If Gafford was mostly a limited-area shooter in Washington (78% of his non-garbage time shots in the first 45 games against the Wizards came from inside the dotted line, according to Cleaning the Glass), he should have become an even smarter shooter. When he finished in Dallas, he took over 87% of his shots from inside the restricted area.
Not many players can match Chamberlain's stats. Gafford is one of them.