Is the Lakers’ red-hot offense sustainable?

Back-to-back wins helped get the taste of a really frustrating loss out of the mouths of Lakers fans to start the week. The absurd play of Luka Dončić also helped us forget as well.

It’s a fun time to be a Lakers fan, evidenced by Bill Simmons’ anger about the Lakers. Anything to take his focus off Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown feuding, I guess.

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We asked again for questions from you guys and, once again, you answered…or asked? Either way, there’s plenty to talk about in this week’s mailbag!

It might feel like the Lakers have an unsustainable offense, but I think some pretty encouraging numbers push back against that. So, let’s dive into this because there is a lot to this.

First, let’s look at the threes. Sure, many of Luka threes don’t seem sustainable except that it’s Luka taking those threes. But outside of that, the team is getting quality looks from beyond the arc.

The team is ninth in 3-point rate with 46% of their shots coming from beyond the arc. That’s a drastic change from last year when they ranked 22nd at 39.4%.

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More notably, the team was dead last in catch-and-shoot 3-pointers attempted and made last year and 24th in 3-pointers attempted overall. This season, it hasn’t even been that drastic of an increase in volume, but it has improved. They’re 16th in 3-pointers attempted, 25th in catch-and-shoot 3-pointers attempted and 19th in makes.

The biggest changes are that they rank second in 3-point percentage, first in catch-and-shoot 3-point percentage and eighth in wide-open 3-point percentage. And yet, they still rank just 15th in the percentage of their points coming from threes.

That’s because they’re still getting to the rim, too. Last season, they were basically, across the board, the best team at scoring once they got to the paint. It’s the benefit of having LeBron James with Luka and Austin Reaves, two great finishers at the rim.

LeBron is, obviously, gone now. But for this specific stat, they replaced him with Walker Kessler, who has feasted at the rim as a roll man. Add in Collin Sexton and Quentin Grimes, two players north of the 85th percentile in field goal…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/lakers-red-hot-offense-sustainable-170843525.html

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Publish date : 2026-11-04 17:08:00

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