During the 1994-95 season, Nick Van Exel emerged as a star for the Los Angeles Lakers and a fan favorite. His playmaking abilities and outside shooting, not to mention his overall offensive skills and chutzpah, helped the Lakers quickly re-emerge as a playoff team just a few years after Magic Johnson was forced into retirement.
That season, Van Exel made 183 3-pointers, which set a new franchise record for most made treys in a single season. Of course, it was a different game back then. The pace was much slower, and the 3-point line was moved inward a couple of feet that year.
On Monday, D’Angelo Russell tied Van Exel’s single-season Lakers record for made triples. He made six in all and scored 27 points, to go along with 10 assists, in L.A.’s 136-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.
Afterward, he reflected on what doing so meant to him.
“That’s another beautiful feeling knowing what this organization means to me, obviously it’s adopted me from a very young age being a rookie in the league. To have my name in the record books at multiple different organizations — I give the credit to the work that I put in and what continues to inspire me every time I step on the floor.”
Head coach Darvin Ham said that he has given Russell plenty of freedom to freelance, play his natural game and let it fly from downtown.
Via ESPN:
“He has a green room,” Ham said of Russell. “Not a green light. A green room.”
Russell was originally drafted by the Lakers with the No. 2 pick in 2015. At first, it looked like perhaps he wouldn’t pan out, as he shot a low percentage in his first two seasons in the Purple and Gold.
After being traded to the Brooklyn Nets in 2017, he returned to L.A. in last February’s Russell Westbrook trade, and he returned a much more refined player, not to mention a more mature man.
It should be noted that in the 1994-95 season, it took Van Exel 80 games to hit 183 3-pointers. Russell has done so this season in just 64 games while shooting 42.4% from 3-point range, compared to the 35.8% Van Exel shot during the 1994-95 campaign (with the shortened 3-point line).
