Will Lakers’ 3-point shooting stabilize in NBA’s second half of season?

Are the Lakers a mediocre shooting team? Or are they a team with good shooters who are underperforming beyond the 3-point arc? 

The answer to those questions will be a defining factor in the Lakers’ post-All-Star break success, which starts with Friday’s home game against the Clippers.

The Lakers entered Friday ranked No. 21 in 3-point percentage at 35%, worse than last season’s 36.6% 3-point shooting (No. 14) and the previous season’s 37.7% (No. 8). 

While their perimeter shooting has been a factor in the offense not performing as expected, there are reasons for optimism that their outside shooting will be a strength in the final “sprint” of the regular season.

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The Lakers shot 37% from beyond the arc in their 19 games leading into the break, which ranked No. 7 across the league, despite their player availability being in flux for most of that stretch after previously being one of the league’s worst shooting teams (33.9% in the first 35 games).

As one of the more prolific pull-up 3-point shooting teams (12.2 attempts, fifth most in the league), which are naturally tougher and lower-percentage shots than catch-and-shoot 3s, the Lakers will fight an uphill battle with their raw 3-point percentage.

But if they can maintain the 37% shooting on catch-and-shoot 3s they shot over the last month (an average mark) instead of the 34.8% they were previously shooting (an abysmal number), then they should sustain the recent 3-point success.

And there are plenty of reasons why they should be able to.

Most of the Lakers’ higher-volume shooters are underperforming on catch-and-shoot 3s this season vs. their previous few seasons, including Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Marcus Smart and Jake LaRavia.

Even Luke Kennard, the league’s most accurate 3-point shooter, significantly underperformed on his catch-and-shoot looks in the four games he played with the Lakers entering Friday. 

The underperformance on catch-and-shoot 3s started to turn in the Lakers’ favor before the break.

And with the team overall becoming healthier, there’s confidence they’ll be able to sustain being a solid-to-good shooting squad, even if players who’ve shot better than expected (like Rui Hachimura) begin to regress to their mean. 

The Lakers have shown they don’t need high-level 3-point shooting to perform well offensively. 

They remain elite inside the arc and getting to the free-throw line.

But sustained 3-point shooting can be the difference between them being a good-to-very good offense like they have been so far and elite like they’ve been projected to be. 

And they’re on the precipice of getting to that level.