SALT LAKE CITY — After Sunday’s narrow road win against the Utah Jazz, the Lakers have a 12-4 record. They are in the midst of their best start to a season since 2020-21, a season they also opened 12-4. They entered the week tied for the second-best record in the Western Conference and third-best record in the league.
The Lakers have also gotten off to their strong start despite poor perimeter shooting.
They entered Monday 26th in the league in 3-point attempts per game (32.7) and 3-point percentage (33.3%). And last in 3-point field goals per game (10.9).
The victory over the Jazz continued the Lakers’ trend of poor outside shooting. They shot 26.3% (10 for 38) from behind the arc, which was the fourth time in five games they have shot worse than 35% from 3-point range. The Lakers have shot better than the league-average 3-point accuracy mark of 35.9% in just four of their 16 games.
“I told the guys this after the game: we’re literally one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA right now,” Coach JJ Redick said. “I don’t think that’s who we are.”
Even if the Lakers do not continue to be one of the league’s worst 3-point shooting teams, it’s what they have been to this point.
On top of their absences (LeBron James’ late start to the season, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves each missing three games so far), how have they started the season strong despite the poor shooting? Especially when factoring in the fact that the other seven teams shooting worse than 35% from long range have a combined 30-87 record?
“Our togetherness is important, playing for each other,” Redick said. “There’s something with this group where we just do whatever the game requires that night. We’ve had to, kind of strategy-wise, mix in a bunch of different things, and the guys have bought into just, ‘hey, this is what tonight requires. Let’s go out there and try to execute that.’ And that’s put us in a position to win 14 of our 16 games.”
Marcus Smart echoed Redick’s sentiments, with the Lakers hoping to turn their outside shooting woes around as soon as Tuesday night’s home game against the Clippers (5-12). Tuesday’s game will be the third NBA Cup Group Play matchup for both teams, with the Lakers and Clippers both holding a 2-0 record in tournament games so far.
“We have some vets on the team that do a really good job of controlling the tempo, controlling the tempers, controlling emotions and making sure we get the job done,” Smart said. “But, we’re definitely gonna shoot better. We work too hard not to. That’s part of the game. You just gotta keep shooting it though.”
It’s helped that the Lakers have been the league’s most efficient team when it comes to scoring at/near the rim, inside of the paint and midrange. Their 22.9 made free throws per game also ranks No. 2 in the league behind the Orlando Magic’s 24.8.
The Lakers’ ability to score prolifically and efficiently from a variety of areas on the court is why they are one of the league’s most efficient shooting teams despite their 3-point shots not falling at a high rate.
“I’m not worried about it at all,” Doncic said on Sunday. “We didn’t play our best game and we still [found] a way to win. That’s what great teams do. Obviously, me and [Reaves] haven’t hit a shot this season, so I’m not worried at all. Once we start making, it’s gonna be really tough to guard.
The Lakers’ confidence that improved shooting will come stems, in part, from the fact that several players are underperforming as shooters compared to their norms.
The team’s top three players in 3-point volume are all shooting worse than 32% from behind the arc: Doncic (31.1% on 11 attempts per game), Reaves (31.1% on 7.9 attempts) and Smart (24.2% on 4.8 attempts).
Doncic entered this season shooting 35% from 3-point range for his career, while Reaves was at 37% and Smart was at 32.4%.
“I’ll do anything to make a 3 now,” Reaves said. “If they go in, we win more games. So it’s very encouraging. We know we got guys here that can shoot the ball.”
The Lakers are not only encouraged by the shots they’re creating, but expect to play at an even higher level once their 3-point shots start falling more consistently.
“If we were out there not creating great looks or we were not playing [the right way] and we were playing selfish basketball [it would be different],” James said. “That’s not our M.O. So you look at over half of the 3s that we missed [on Sunday], a lot of them were wide open, but a lot of them were just finding the right player. The ball has so much energy in it that we’re not worried about that.
“When we’re not making shots, we got to defend. We got to be able to get stops and it took us all the way to the last possession to get the stop that we needed to win the ballgame [on Sunday]. So that’s the encouraging part, knowing that even when we’re not shooting the ball well, we’re still winning ballgames.”
CLIPPERS AT LAKERS
When: Tuesday, 8 p.m.
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV/Radio: NBA, Peacock, Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM