The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder to get their sixth straight win for the second time during the 2019-20 NBA season.
The game was iced in part due to Anthony Davis‘ four-point play as he made one in each half.
This spoke to a trend of Davis shooting a lot more three-pointers as this season progresses. In the team’s last four games, Davis has gone 7-of-17 from beyond the arc. However, in the ten games before that, he went 8-of-27.
This is also something that Davis never did with the New Orleans Pelicans as in seven seasons there, he made more than three three-pointers just 11 times. He’s already done that three times in his first 14 games in Los Angeles.
Davis was told by LeBron James that he needs to be taking more three-pointers because he’s way too good of a shooter to not shoot when he’s being left open, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“We want him to take more 3s,” LeBron James said after Davis went 4-for-7 from 3-point range against the Thunder. “Teams are playing off of him, and he’s too damn good of a shooter not to shoot them. And he’s been doing that the last couple games.”
Davis also said that head coach Frank Vogel told him to stop hesitating:
“Coach told me to stop hesitating,” Davis said. “When I hesitate, I’m going to come up short or [have] a bad miss. I feel like if I’m open I’m going to shoot it. No hesitation. And seems to go in a lot more when I’m not hesitating.”
If Davis can become a consistent three-point shooter and making it a routine part of his game, that could be a deadly weapon for this Lakers offense. All Davis would need to do is shoot at least 35 percent to keep defenders honest and he could wreak havoc on that end of the floor.
Davis is proving to everyone this season exactly why he’s a top-five player in the league. He is currently one of the frontrunners for 2019-20 NBA Defensive Player of the Year while averaging 25.8 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.
Adding a three-point game would simply be icing on the cake for the 26-year old All-Star player who’s playing some of the best basketball of his young career.
