The Los Angeles Lakers are 9-4 and at least for the time being, the league’s marquee franchise has the look of a team that knows who they are and knows that they can compete against any team in the NBA. After multiple years of stalled offenses under Frank Vogel and Darvin Ham, the Lakers currently boast the league’s 5th-most efficient offense. We could easily credit new head coach JJ Redick or Father Time’s greatest rival, LeBron James. But while we’re at it, let’s show some love for Anthony Davis too.
Anthony Davis is averaging 31 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks per game in 2024, and thus far, the oft-injured big man has only missed one of LA’s 13 games. Maybe most importantly, it seems as if Davis has regained the shooting form that left him shortly after the Los Angeles Lakers departed the Disney Bubble with an NBA Title back in 2020.
Per StatMuse, Anthony Davis has now hit multiple three-pointers in five consecutive games, which is the longest streak of his career. It hardly feels like a coincidence that the Lakers have won all five of these games.
It’s not just Davis has hit multiple three-pointers in five straight games… it’s that he’s doing so at an insanely high rate. In this five game stretch, AD has connected on 10-of-16 attempts from downtown, which is 63 percent for those who were trying to crunch the numbers in their head. And thus far, he’s not the only Laker who has been scorching hot from three-point range.
LeBron James is currently shooting a career-best 43 percent on five-and-a-half three-point attempts per game. Rui Hachimura is shooting 50 percent on nearly four attempts per game. Rookie Dalton Knecht came out of the gate strong, shooting 40 percent from distance and Austin Reaves has remained steady, hitting 36 percent of his triples for the second consecutive year.
Maybe the JJ Redick effect in Lakerland is real after all.
Lakers pushing for one more title run with LeBron James, Anthony Davis
It took the Lakers just one season to hang a banner after acquiring Anthony Davis for a bounty of picks and players in the summer of 2019, but since then, LA hasn’t returned to the promised land, which was a result that seemed inevitable after they left no doubt they were the best team in the league in the Bubble. But since then, the results have been sporadic.
Los Angeles has made just one return trip to the Western Conference Finals since 2020, where they were swept by the soon-to-be NBA Champion Denver Nuggets. They’ve been bounced in the 1st Round of the Playoffs twice, and missed the postseason altogether in 2022. Time is running out for LA to hang banner number 18.
LeBron James will be 40 by the time 2024 turns to 2025, and he’s already suggested he may only have a season or two left after this one. Anthony Davis will be 32 by season’s end, and he’s hardly been a model of perfect health throughout his career. Unless Austin Reaves and Dalton Knecht continue develop and become LA’s version of ‘The Exciting Whites,’ then this championship window may only be open for a year, maybe two.
The post Lakers’ Anthony Davis sets new personal record amid hot 3-point streak appeared first on ClutchPoints.
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