Before the Los Angeles Lakers won Game 6 of the 2020 NBA Finals, Anthony Davis made one crucial phone call that helped the Lakers clinch the Orlando Bubble title.
Up 3-1 in the series, the Lakers missed a chance to wrap it up in Game 5 when Danny Green missed a wide-open three-pointer at the top of the key with Miami up by only one point. With the Heat closing in, AD decided to call shooting coach Chris Matthews to ask him a favor.
" The year I had AD, Kuz, all those guys who won a championship, AD calls me like I want to say 2 in the morning. They in the bubble. So AD calls me like 'Yo, I need you to call Danny Green right now on FaceTime. And you need to tell him exactly what you see he's doing wrong. And I'm like 'What?' So he's like 'Call him right now ,' said Matthews.
Danny Green was firing blanks in the Finals
Matthews was the shooting coach for AD, Kyle Kuzma, Avery Bradley, Quinn Cook, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope that season. And even though he could not travel with them to the bubble, Lethal Shooter kept in touch with his pupils online.
Meanwhile, Green was a key reserve during the Lakers' regular season run in 2019-20, averaging 8.0 points per game on 36.7% three-point shooting. But through five games in the 2020 NBA Finals, Danny had averaged just 6.8 points per game and shot just 8-31 (25.8%) from three-point distance. The Lakers needed Green if they wanted to win Game 6.
"At that time, me and Danny know each other because we're shooters," added Matthews. "I know him. So I call Danny and said 'Look bro, I know I ain't your coach but this is what I see'. And he was like 'Damn, how you break it down like that?' And I'm like, this is what I do."
Lethal Shooter proved helpful
Matthews is one of the most sought-after shooting coaches in the NBA today. Lethal Shooter has been a shooting coach for years, but he was first noticed when Bobby Portis finished in the Top 3 in three-point shooting during the Bucks' 2022 championship season.
His impressive list of clients includes Grant Williams, Grayson Allen, and Michael Porter Jr., who all saw an improvement in their shots after working with the Lethal Shooter. This past season, Matthews worked with Jaylen Brown, who won the ECF and NBA Finals MVP award. But in 2020, it was the Lakers and Danny Green.
Green matched his best game of the series in Game 6 with 11 points on 3-7 three-point shooting. Impressed with the outcome, Green hired Matthews as his shooting coach the following season when he played for the Sixers. At 33, Danny improved from 36.7% to 40.5% three-point shooting while averaging a career-high 2.5 three-pointers made per game.
Related: "I don't want anybody else to guard him" - When LeBron James insisted on guarding Jimmy Butler in Game 6 of the 2020 Finals
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