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Nets turning into 3-point chuckers

Deron Williams loses the ball against Raptors forward Terrence Ross in the first half during Game 4 of their first-round playoff series at Barclays Center on Sunday, April 27, 2014.
Deron Williams loses the ball against Raptors forward Terrence Ross in the first half during Game 4 of their first-round playoff series at Barclays Center on Sunday, April 27, 2014. Photo Credit: Michael Pisarri / Michael Pisarri

For the Nets, 3-point land has been no man’s land thus far in the NBA playoffs.

The Nets and Raptors are tied at two in their first-round matchup, and one of the main reasons has been Brooklyn’s ineptitude from downtown — they entered last night’s games last in 3-point shooting (.250) during the postseason.

The Nets hope this improves tonight when the two teams meet for Game 5 in Toronto. The problem hasn’t necessarily been a lack of open looks, as the Nets have had their fair share. It has simply been execution.

The main culprits have been Paul Pierce, Deron Williams and Mirza Teletovic. The trio has combined to shoot just 16-for-62 (.258) from behind the arc in this series. In fact, besides Joe Johnson, who is shooting .455 from 3-point range, everyone else on the Nets’ roster is shooting less than 30%.

For a team which struggled mightily with outside shooting last season, the changes to the roster were supposed to prevent the same thing from happening again. Three-point specialists Alan Anderson and Marcus Thornton were the two solutions to the problem, but they have been no-shows to this point in the series.

Eventually, somebody has to step up and knock down some shots because the Nets’ presence inside isn’t dominant enough to win this series without doing so. If the outside shooting doesn’t improve, the Raptors will be able to easily stop the Nets offense by neutralizing Kevin Garnett, Andray Blatche and Mason Plumlee down low. Game 5 will be very telling — if the Nets start hitting some 3s and win in Toronto, they will be very hard to beat in Game 6 in Brooklyn.