When you think of Tuesday's matchup between the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets, what springs to mind?
Certainly 3-point shooting is among the first things. The Hawks have shooters all over the floor, both in the starting lineup and off the bench. The Rockets boast a notoriously skewed attack that shuns midrange jumpers in favor of 3s as much as any team we've seen in the NBA.
When we tune into the game, we can certainly expect plenty of long-range bombs, but the Hawks and Rockets have many more structural similarities than you might think, despite the difference between Atlanta's egalitarian, ball-sharing offense and Houston's James Harden-led attack. Harden is one of four qualifying players in the league with a usage rate over 30 percent, while you have to scroll all the way down to No. 34 to find an Atlanta starter -- point guard Jeff Teague. What that means is the clubs are taking different paths to get to the same place.
I'm referring to Shot Attempt Efficiency (SAE), a metric I've tracked for several years, which simply measures how many points per shot a team can be expected to score (or allow) based on where shots are taken. SAE can tell you a lot about the schematic philosophies of teams and coaches around the league.