The Los Angeles Lakers were in the bottom seven in the NBA in attempting, making, and converting 3-point shots last season. The team is built around LeBron James and Anthony Davis hitting the basket, but they don’t shoot well from outside the arc, which is a problem in a league where 3s are becoming more common.

This is the reason why the Lakers’ 3-point shooting has been so good in the preseason. The Lakers have made 37.6% of their 93 3-point shots so far in two games. Last year, that percentage would have been seventh in the league. The volume is also noticeable, and the Lakers have put a lot of focus on that as a whole.

The Lakers beat the Nets in preseason and took 55 shots from deep. Davis said that after the game. The star big man thinks that the team’s shots went in a rhythm, but they want to feel good about their shooting in general: “We talked about making more threes.” It’s clear that this is a big deal because of how the league has changed—a lot of threes. But it was all in time with the flow, like swings, swings, guys going under pick-and-rolls, guys shooting the gap, and other things like that. We just want to be sure of our shots and let it go.

In addition, LeBron said that the Lakers have better outside shooters generally and that teams want to make them pay if they play them a certain way:

“This year we need to shoot better. A lot of our guys shot the ball really well from three-point range last year. Taurean [Prince], Gabe [Vincent], and, of course, Rui all had great shooting seasons at the end of the year. D-Lo shoots it, AR shoots it, and AD and I will also add our own shots. Putting pressure on them and still getting to the free-throw line is the first thing that needs to be done. That starts with AD and me. But when teams block our pick-and-rolls or treat us badly from the outside, we have enough shooting to feel confident going up and knocking them down quickly.

“But it’s only one game and still a work in progress.” The way Brooklyn played us tonight made me think they wanted us to make a lot of shots. They got through a lot of our pick-and-rolls, pin-downs, and other moves like that. Coach told us that if teams play us that way, we should just go up and knock them down. That’s what we’ve been working on. During the game, we know that if we’re shooting jump shots for four, five, or six plays and not making them, we need to put some pressure on the basket, which we know we can do. We get that.

Without a doubt, the Lakers’ best skills are still going for the basket and getting to the line with LeBron, Davis, and Austin Reaves. But if the Lakers can make more 3-point shots, it opens up the court for those drives and makes their attack almost impossible to stop. The Lakers can’t get too excited about their outside shots, but they are better able to beat teams from deep this year.

The Lakers’ Jarred Vanderbilt and Cam Reddish are both thought to be day-to-day.

It was the Lakers’ first win of the preseason, and they did it without two key players. Jarred Vanderbilt missed the game because his heel hurt and Cam Reddish has an ankle problem. Both players are only day-to-day, though.

Head coach Darvin Ham gave reports on both and said that the team was being careful because it is still so early in the year, but neither is thought to be seriously hurt.