Lakers News: Austin Reaves Identifies Most Critical Offensive Stat LA Must Improve

Your Los Angeles Lakers are one of the NBA's worst three-point shooting squads. LA ranks 19th in overall triples taken (35.7), and their 30.4% conversion rate ranks dead least.

The shooting reached its nadir two weeks ago.

LA's January 4th loss at the hands of the Miami Heat was marred by one of the worst three-point shooting games in NBA history (with at least 30 attempts).

LA knocked down just four of their 30 three-point attempts, good for just 13%. This disastrous shooting game was magnified by the Heat playing a zone defense, which makes it harder to generate looks inside the arc, and instead, makes it easier to get open looks on the perimeter.

The NBA features far less zone now than it has in the past, largely due to the prevalence and capability of three-point shooters across the league.

To that end, Miami playing a zone to the level of success that they did in this game illustrates not only how awful LA is as a team from behind the arc, but also highlights the confidence that the Heat had in the Lakers' continuing to miss from behind the arc.

Austin Reaves, who accounted for half (two) of LA's made triple tries, had some comments after the game, per Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times:

“If you just look at the stat sheet, we got to shoot the ball better from three,” Reaves said. “Shooting 13% tonight, you not going to win those games when you do that… Basketball today, you got to shoot the three well. Obviously turnovers have been an issue. But once we start I think making threes at a good percentage then everything will open up, especially for LeBron and AD. So, we have to do our part in helping them out because they draw so much attention.”

Reaves is right in that LA will experience some regression to the mean from behind the arc and subsequently make life easier for LeBron and Anthony Davis – the only problem is that the "regression to the mean" that I'm referring to is 30th in the league.

So, teams like the Heat can continue to play zone and likely find enough success, which makes the jobs of LeBron and AD significantly harder, limiting their impact whilst stagnating the offense to the highest magnitude.

Los Angeles needs shooting, and they need it now. Unfortunately, with how this roster is constructed, they'll need to seek it out via a trade.