There are only a handful of NBA shooters who have earned the unquestioned green light to let it fly from basically anywhere on the court at any time. Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry is perhaps the most famous example, but his new teammate Buddy Hield is afforded the same level of freedom by head coach Steve Kerr. Even so, confidence can waver for the most dangerous of sharpshooters, and that may have been on display in Golden State’s 124-106 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night.
With Curry, Andrew Wiggins and De’Anthony Melton out of the lineup, Hield was tasked with picking up much of the offensive slack as he earned his first start of the season against the team that drafted him. Things went abysmally wrong in the first half, however, with Hield scoring just three points on 1-for-8 shooting, including 1 of 5 from 3-point range, as the Warriors mustered just 47 points at the break.
As these things often go with long-range marksmen, though, Hield was a different player in the second half when he poured in 25 points — 19 in the fourth quarter alone — on 8-for-10 shooting, including 6-for-6 from beyond the arc. Even more impressive, he did it all in fewer than 12 minutes.
Turns out, Hield’s scorching second half can be chalked up to a little more than a streaky shooter getting hot. While he was percolating in the fourth quarter, Hield kept shouting in the direction of Hall of Famer and Indiana Pacers legend Reggie Miller, who was calling the game for TNT at Chase Center. On the broadcast, Miller explained that he had provided some words of advice for Hield at halftime, but refused to divulge the specifics.
Luckily for us, Hield has never been one to hold his tongue, and he revealed a censored version of Miller’s message that helped lead to the second-half explosion: “He told me to shoot the blanking ball. Sometimes you need someone like that to come to you, and I responded well.”
Tuesday’s 28-point outburst continued a torrid start for Hield in a Warriors uniform. He joined Curry as the only players in Warriors history to make at least 20 3-pointers in their first four games with the franchise, and is now averaging a team-best 21.3 points per game on absurd 56% 3-point shooting.
Hield and Golden State seemed like a match made in heaven when he joined the squad via the six-team trade that sent Klay Thompson to the Dallas Mavericks this offseason, but it was hard to predict that things would go this well this soon. You better believe that Hield will have Miller on speed dial for the rest of the season just in case he needs another round of mid-game motivation.
