The biggest reason the Los Angeles Lakers are 0-2 to begin the new season is their lack of 3-point shooting. They shot 20% from that distance in both their contests.
However, there could be a related problem — namely, an overreliance on outside shooting.
In their opening night loss to the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers took 40 3s and made 10. The trend continued on Thursday versus the Los Angeles Clippers; they hoisted a whopping 45 treys and converted on nine.
If L.A. keeps jacking up 3-pointers at this rate, it may even lead the NBA in such attempts or at least come close for the entire season.
LeBron James knows it’s not a recipe for success, but at the same time, he liked a lot of the things his team did against the Clippers.
“We played the way we wanted to play,” James said. “We defended at a high level, we shared the ball offensively. You can’t control when the ball goes in and doesn’t go in, so I think we made another step forward today, and our development will continue to get better and better.
“… I mean, you got to be tactical about it, too,” James said of the Lakers’ defense. “You got to go out and compete. Just got to be tactical. Know what you’re doing.
“Keying in on players, pros and cons and what they want to do, what they love to do, and the way they exploit defenses, so I thought we were very locked in with what the game plan was, and it resulted in us getting some stops, getting some run-outs and get back into the game, especially after that first quarter.”
The 20-year veteran reiterated how important it is for the Lakers to stick to their strengths, which are defense and their transition game, and to not get suckered into trying to out-shoot opponents from downtown.
“There’ll be a game when we make multiple threes in a game. Multiple games. But if we’re relying on that every single game, then we’re in trouble,” he said.
“So I’m not worried about it or thinking about that. It’s how hard we play, how aggressive we play, how determined we are going to compete every night, and we’ve got to defend. When we defend, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win. And that’s a good ingredient to have.”
Los Angeles played well enough defensively to win, holding a very potent Clippers team to 103 points. Although it did well to get out in transition at times, its 15 fast-break points weren’t nearly enough to overcome its inability to hit from the outside.
As deadly as the Lakers’ fast break is and can be over the course of the season, they do need to hit a respectable number of 3-pointers, and that starts with them turning down the type of impulsive, contested 3-pointers they settled for all too often on Thursday.
