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C.J. Miles Is Shooting the Lights Out In the Past 5 Games

By Ben Gibson

Apr 2, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Indiana Pacers forward C.J. Miles (0) reacts after his three pointer against the Philadelphia 76ers during the second half at Wells Fargo Center. The Pacers won 115-102. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 2, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Indiana Pacers forward C.J. Miles (0) reacts after his three pointer against the Philadelphia 76ers during the second half at Wells Fargo Center. The Pacers won 115-102. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /
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If the Indiana Pacers want to make some noise in the playoffs, they’ll need C.J. Miles to continue his hot streak.

In case you hadn’t noticed, C.J. Miles has become a flame emoji again and averaged 16 points in the Pacers’ last five games.

The PointAfter highlighted Miles’ strong performances from last week in their weekly hottest shooters post.

"Miles wasn’t shy about slinging it from anywhere. He went 13-of-22 (59 percent) from downtown and shot 65 percent overall in the trio of victories, including a 6-of-8 performance from beyond the arc in Indiana’s 123-109 triumph over the LeBron-less Cavaliers.There’s a decent chance Indiana will rematch Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs. Miles will have to continue playing out of his mind if the Pacers are to have a prayer at pulling off a monumental upset or four."

That continued into Sunday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets as he knocked down his first two 3-point attempts (and had a nice block of Sean Kilpatrick to end the first quarter) to get things going for Indiana. He’d end the game on 4 of 7 shooting, making 3 of his 6 attempts from beyond the arc for a total of 11 points.

Adding in the win over the Nets, Miles has made 57.1% of his shots from the field and 50% of them from 3-point range in the last five games.

C.J. Miles Stats in Last Five Games | PointAfter

If the Pacers are looking to escape the first round of the playoffs, they’ll need Miles to continue to rain down shots from deep. When he’s shooting like this, Indiana has a chance to beat anyone.

Back in November when the Pacers went 11-2, his numbers were similar. He took just over 7 3-pointers a game while making 43.7% of them and was averaging 15.9 points a game. In Indiana’s last five games he’s actually taking fewer shots (9.8 vs 11.8) than he did back then, but he’s now making half of his attempts from beyond the arc.

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Just taking a quick glance at some of the tracking data from NBA.com, back in November 58.1% of his shots came with a defender 4 feet or further away from him, similar to the 57.1% we’ve seen in these last five games. For comparison, he’s had defenders that far away on 50.5% of his shots for the entire season. Getting a few more attempts from anywhere on the floor with that added room is going to help your field goal percentage.

It isn’t surprising either that on 83.7% of his shots in the last five games he’s held the ball for two seconds or less. Indiana’s done a better job as a team setting each other up in these last five games as their assist percentage is about 5% higher than their season average. When a player is wide open, he isn’t going to waste time dribbling.

When Miles is making shots, the Pacers offense performs better. Back in November Indiana had a bonkers 10.5 net rating thanks to a 104.1 offensive rating and a 93.6 defensive rating. Indiana has posted a 9.4 net rating in these past five games, but it’s coming mostly from their offense as they’ve posted an 112.9 offensive rating and a 103.6 defensive rating.

C.J. Miles’s Three-Point Shooting Over Time | PointAfter

There are some significant difference between now and then, though. In November, it helped that Paul George was averaging 29.5 points a game compared to a 19.5 average in Indiana’s last five games. Also, Myles Turner wasn’t a major factor in the Pacers rotation back in November. His defense has been suspect at times, but we’ve seen his offense become a weapon for the Pacers.

None of this means that if Miles keeps this up that Indiana will escape the first round, but making more shots isn’t going to hurt the Pacers’ chances either. If they could play better defense and keep up this offensive intensity, that would be particularly devastating to opponents, but considering how much we’ve talked about a lack of consistency in the Pacers play lately, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

Next: The Reason for the Pacers Late-Game Struggles

As long as the Indiana Pacers continue to set up Miles with room to get his shot off, we’re much more likely to see this hot streak continue. And if Miles continues to have the hot hand, they have a better chance at winning games.

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