Los Angeles Lakers: Three stats that explain the team’s hot start
1. 3-point shooting
The Lakers are in first place in the highly competitive Western Conference, and they have the second-best net rating (+10.5) in the NBA, so it’s hard to criticize the Purple and Gold. With that said, LA’s 3-point shooting has been a problem.
The Lakers, as a team, are shooting 31.4% from deep, good for 25th in the NBA.
Jared Dudley is shooting 100% from beyond the arc off of two total 3-pointers, and Danny Green is nailing 48.5% of his 3-point attempts. Every other Lakers player is shooting well below their career 3-point average.
- Avery Bradley: 35.3 3P%
- Alex Caruso: 28.6 3P%
- LeBron James: 28.1 3P%
- Troy Daniels: 26.9 3P%
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: 26.7 3P%
- Anthony Davis: 22.2 3P%
- Quinn Cook: 21.4 3P%
- Kyle Kuzma: 12.5 3P%
The Lakers players are struggling from deep, but as the year progresses, their percentages will go up. Right now, everybody on the roster is expending a tremendous amount of energy on the less glamorous side of the ball. That tires a man out. The season’s still in its infancy, so guys like Troy Daniels, Quinn Cook, and Alex Caruso need time to get into genuine game shape.
We need to hope it doesn’t take much longer for the Lakers sharpshooters to get their game legs under them because as the bricks from deep have piled up, LBJ and AD have been forced to drag the Purple and Gold’s offense across the finish line for victories. Pulling an entire team takes its toll, especially when you’ve played over 50,000 regular-season minutes, as LeBron has.
The Lakers are 5-1, while almost the entire roster has been awful from beyond the arc. The rest of the league better look out, because once Daniels, Cook, Caruso, Kuzma, and company start to shoot like their career 3-point averages indicate they should, LA is going to start to look truly scary.
Next. Los Angeles Lakers Are Proving To Be Contenders. dark
As soon as the Lakers’ long-range bombs start to hit, then the Lakers will build huge leads, which in turn will allow James and Davis to get more rest throughout games. Consequently, LBJ and AD will be fresher, and they’ll play even better.