The Los Angeles Lakers took a tough loss on Wednesday night, falling to the Philadelphia 76ers 115-109. Luke Walton’s team went back-and-forth with another young up-and-coming team all night, but just couldn’t come up with a win.
One struggle the Lakers had, once again, was their three-point shooting. They made only 3-27 from deep and rank dead last by a longshot in both three-pointers per game, and three-point percentage.
After another awful shooting night, Walton didn’t pull punches about his team’s deep shooting, and saying that he expects extra work from all of his players via Lakers reporter Mike Trudell:
Walton said the Lakers simply aren’t a good 3-point shooting team right now, obviously. He asked each player at shootaround today to shoot more 3’s before/after practice.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) November 16, 2017
Going into Wednesday’s game the Lakers had only two players shooting 35 percent or better from deep: Jordan Clarkson (40.0 percent) and Brook Lopez (35.1). After those two, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are between 31 and 32 percent and the rest of the team is under 30 percent.
It is no secret that the team’s main struggles so far this season have been on offense and the lack of shooting is the biggest. The Lakers are unable to consistently space the floor because no one can make shots from deep, which makes it more difficult to attack the rim.
The Lakers have players who are capable of being above-average shooters in Caldwell-Pope, Kuzma, Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and Josh Hart. What needs to be figured out is why no one can consistently make outside shots.
Walton believes more practice and work before and afterwards will help his team get their shooting on track. If that doesn’t work however, the Lakers will need to figure out another way to improve their outside shooting, and fast.
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