At almost the midway point of their season, the Los Angeles Lakers are just 19-20 and clinging to 10th place in the Western Conference. Despite starting out a home-heavy schedule this month, they have lost three of their last five games, all of which have taken place at Crypto.com Arena.
What makes their struggles confounding is the fact that LeBron James and Anthony Davis have been playing excellent ball for just about the entire season so far. Additionally, they rank in the top 10 in field-goal percentage, assists, free throw attempts, points in the paint and fast-break points per game.
So why is L.A. just 19th in points per game and 23rd in offensive rating? Quite simply, the team is awful at hitting 3-pointers, and it goes beyond the fact that it is 22nd in 3-point shooting percentage.
A deeper look at the stats is very troubling
Not only are the Lakers awful at converting treys, but they also don’t put up that many. In fact, they rank dead-last in the league in 3-point attempts per game.
But it gets even worse than that.
In an excellent in-depth analysis on ESPN.com, Chris Herring pointed out some detailed stats that fully expose L.A.’s ineptitude from downtown.
“Only the Detroit Pistons — yes, the team that just tied the NBA record for infamy with 28 consecutive defeats — are making fewer three-pointers per game (10.5) than the Lakers(10.8). Even with the additions of forwards Taurean Prince and Christian Wood, the Lakers generate the NBA’s second fewest wide-open attempts from deep each game.”
There have been plenty of games the Lakers have lost this season chiefly because they got greatly outscored from behind the 3-point line. There have even been games where that has happened even though they shot a good or great percentage from that distance.
Many have criticized head coach Darvin Ham for the lack of movement and imagination the Lakers have shown in their set offense. But as Herring illustrated, that’s just part of the problem.
“And even when they do get open looks, they rarely convert them. The Lakers are connecting on just 27% of their uncontested 3s this season, a mark that would go down as the NBA’s worst in the past decade, according to Second Spectrum data.”
While Prince has been every bit the good 3-point shooter he has been in the past, and while Wood has shown signs of getting back to being that type of player lately, L.A. lacks any other consistent threats from downtown.
Austin Reaves, who made nearly 40% of his attempts from deep last season, is at just 34.3% this season. Guard D’Angelo Russell is at a very strong 38.5% from deep, but he tends to be streaky, and he was frigid for most of December, which arguably led to him being moved to the bench.
LeBron James is making 38.9% of his 3-point attempts this season, which is a major improvement over last season. But he has always needed non-stars around him who will knock down such shots consistently, and he doesn’t have enough of that right now.
In addition, he may be starting to flame out — he has shot just 25.9% from downtown in his last five games, and in two of those five contests, he has failed to make a single trey.
