Can things turn around?
Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James may be leading everyone in All-Star fan voting and going where few have gone before when it comes to scoring as a 38-year-old in the NBA, but his offense is not without flaw.
Across his past four healthy contests for LA (During which the team has gone 2-2), James has shot just 2-of-23 from three-point land. But he can’t stop shooting, especially late in games.
This stems from the cold, hard reality that he is playing too many minutes, and by the end of games seems reticent to drive inside for contact. He’ll pull up for triples early in the shot clock and let fly, often to disastrous effect lately.
Across 32 healthy games for the 19-23 Lakers, James has been shooting 6.7 threes per contest, but connecting on just 28.5% of them. That conversion rate, should it continue to bear out for the rest of the season, would represent a career-worst for the 18-time All-Star forward. This represents a massive dip from last year, when he was making 35.9% of his eight treys a night. A career 34.4% three-point shooter on 4.6. tries a night.
This is a minor issue for LA at present, though it has cost the club occasionally in recent close games. If James trusted more of his colleagues, perhaps he would relinquish the rock late a bit more.
