LeBron James is shooting 43% from three-point range through the Lakers’ first 15 games this season. His 37 made threes (from 86 attempts) are more than career sharpshooters such as Damian Lillard, Michael Porter Jr. and Donte DiVincenzo in the young season.
This is the same player whom Gregg Popovich dared to shoot from anywhere outside 10 feet in the 2007 NBA Finals, a strategy that worked so effectively that the Spurs swept the Cavaliers.
It’s nothing short of astounding that 17 years later, he has evolved into a sharpshooter, converting on 55.6% of his shots from the 10-14 feet range and 40% on corner threes.
Even until a few years ago, defenses were not opposed to allowing James to go bombs away from deep. They knew that, as long he was kept from getting to the rim, they had minimized his impact and could live with the results.
That’s no longer the case. On Thursday, the Magic tried to blitz James in the fourth quarter when he went bonkers from deep, making three consecutive threes between the 8:27 and 7:23 mark. It was the sort of defensive coverage usually only reserved for Stephen Curry or Lillard at the business end of a game.
