One thing that has stood out about the Los Angeles Lakers through two preseason games is their increased volume of 3-point shots. They launched 38 on Saturday versus the Golden State Warriors, making nearly 40%, and on Monday against the Brooklyn Nets, they went 20-of-55 from downtown.
Following the Lakers’ 129-126 win over Brooklyn, head coach Darvin Ham said he wants his players to take more 3-pointers this season, including Anthony Davis, who he wants to shoot six treys a game. Davis confirmed there is a conscious effort to emphasize 3-point shooting more (h/t Lakers Nation).
“We just wanna be confident in our shots and let it fly.” AD & LeBron speak on the #Lakers’ increase in three-point shooting and the game's pace. pic.twitter.com/B3qychXV0v
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) October 10, 2023
“We talked about getting more 3s up. Obviously its been a point of emphasis in the way the league has shifted, too, just a lot of 3s. But it all came in rhythm, swing, swings or guys are going under pick-and-rolls or guys are shooting the gap in certain actions and things like that. We just wanna be confident in our shots and let it fly.”
LeBron James then expanded on that point.
“We have better shooting this year. We have a lot of guys that shot the ball extremely well from the 3-point line last year. Taurean (Prince), Gabe (Vincent) and obviously Rui ended the year shooting extremely well. D-Lo shoots it, AR shoots it, and myself and AD we’ll sprinkle in as well. Obviously it starts with putting pressure on them and still getting to the free throw line, that starts with myself and AD. But when teams go under our pick-and-rolls or teams disrespect us from the perimeter we have enough shooting that we believe we can go up there and knock ’em down with confidence and with a high clip.
“But it’s still a work in progress, it’s just one game. I think the way Brooklyn played us tonight they dared us to shoot a lot of shots. They went under a lot of our pick-and-rolls, went under a lot of our pin-downs and things of that nature so Coach said if teams are gonna play us like that we just go up and just knock ’em down. It’s stuff we’ve been working on. But we know throughout the course of the game if there’s four, five, six possessions where you’re shooting jump shots and you’re not making them we gotta try to put some pressure on the rim, which we know we can do that as well. We understand that.”
Since James came to the Lakers five years ago, they have been among the league leaders in points in the paint and have put lots of pressure on the rim offensively, especially in transition. But if they continue to hit the 3-ball at a robust rate while getting up a good volume of such attempts, it would greatly improve an offense that was just 19th in offensive rating last season.