We’ve seen this movie before, haven’t we? But usually we’re the other team who just lost the game because some red hot 3-point shooter just shot lights out and sent the the Lakers home losers. Well, not tonight, baby.
Tonight, the team where 3-point shooters come to die got revenge as Ben McLemore, starting with a minute left in the 3rd, exploded for 5 threes and 17 points in 13 minutes to turn a 12 point lead into a 25 point Lakers’ win. Ben made 6 for 12 from the field and 5 for 10 from deep as the Lakers tied their season record with 19 made threes on 34 attempts while holding the Nets to just 5 made threes on 27 attempts, including a 0 for 15 second half.
The Lakers took an 8-point 1st quarter lead, lost it but still led by 3 at the half, and were holding a shaky 12-point lead with a minute left in the 3rd when Ben McLemore made what was the most important shot in the game. After missing his first four shots in the game, Ben’s corner three jumper off a pass from Caruso broke a 3-minute drought without a field goal and gave the Lakers confidence and a 15 point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
There were many Laker heroes last night — Dre, Dennis, Kenny, Talen, Keef — but it was Ben splashing two more threes to start the fourth that pushed the lead to 21 points and turned a competitive game into a Lakers’ blowout. The Lakers have struggled all season to win the 3-point battle without a volume 3-point shooter like McLemore who could shoot them back into games or catch fire and turn close games into blowouts like last night.
Ben McLemore may be the answer to the Lakers 3-point shooting woes. While Ben’s not going to take 10 threes every game, if he could take 7 or 8 threes per game, he could reverse the Lakers’ negative 3-point differential. Teams can’t increase their 3-point shot attempts by just having their existing shooters take more threes. The only way teams can realistically increase the threes taken is by adding high percentage, high volume 3-point shooters.
Volume 3-point shooting is specific skill and mind set the Lakers didn’t have on the roster until they added McLemore. It takes a player with a quick release and zero conscience or worry when it comes to letting the shot fly. That’s not Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Dennis Schroder, Alex Caruso, Marc Gasol, or even Kyle Kuzma, Wesley Matthews, or Markieff Morris but it is Ben McLemore as we saw last night when he rained threes on the Nets.
How much difference can one volume 3-point shooter make for the Lakers? The math is simple. Each additional 3-point shot is potentially worth a point so if Ben can add 8 more threes per game, that could be worth 8 points. That’s assuming he shoots threes at 33.3%. If he can take 8 threes and make 3.2 or 40%, then he could add 9.6 points to the Lakers’ offense, which would elevate the Lakers from 23rd with 110.8 ppg to 1st with 120.4 ppg.
While some of those 8 additional threes by McLemore could be new shots, some will just replace 2-point or 3-point shots taken by other players so Ben taking 8 threes per game is not going to actually generate 9.6 more points. However, volume 3-point shooting by Ben could generate half of that or 4.8 more points per game which would increase the Lakers’ ppg to 115.0, which would make them a Top-5 NBA offense in points scored per game.
So while last night’s game was just one game, it shows why Ben McLemore and his high percentage, high volume 3-point shooting could be the missing piece in solving the puzzle of the Lakers’ negative 3-point differential.
The Lakers have improved their 3-point shooting dramatically over the last 5 games, ranking 19th with 33.0 3PA PG, 8th with 14.6 3PM PG, and 1st with 44.2% 3P%.
For the season, they now rank 24th with 30.8 3PA PG, 26th with 11 3PM PG, and 20th with 35.7% 3P%.
Ben is now tied with LeBron for 1st on the team with 6.5 3PA PG, 1st with 2.5 3PM PG, and 4th at 38.0% 3p%. He’s averaging 20 mintues per game.
He’s also playing pretty good defense, ranking 2nd on the team at 94.5 for his first two games. That should become more challenging as teams look to hunt him but the Lakers play a pretty good rotating defense so they should be able to hide him.
At any rate, how sweet it is to see a Laker be the player who gets hot and turns a competitive game into a blow out. Great start to Ben’s Lakers career.
LAST NIGHT WAS A GAME WE WOULD NOT HAVE WON WITHOUT ANDRE AND BEN BEING ADDED TO THE ROSTER!
One team’s discards are sometimes another team’s gold. I see no reason to change the buyout rule…if a team is willing to pay market value for a player, then decide to cut him to save a few bucks, so be it.
I agree 100%, John, but you can bet the small market teams are going to focus on this for the next CBA.
Frankly, you rarely see any of these waived players actually turn into anything special. The Lakers struck gold last year with Markieff Morris and it looks like they could have struck gold again this year with Drummond and McLemore. Kudos to them for smart scouting and for convincing those two guys that the Lakers were the team with whom to sign. Great job by Rob and the front office.
Great game by Ben. Hmmm…Ben is averaging 20 mpg same as Wes. If he can generate some consistency those minutes are his for the taking. My three stars for the game: 1. Dennis, 2. Dre 3. Ben.