LeBron James improving another area of his game
No one needed to tell LeBron James his three-point shooting percentage for the first five weeks of the season.
He knew: 36.2%. Not horrible, but James knew it could be better.
So he went to work. Often at the Cavs’ practice facility. At least once where he went to high school, St. Vincent-St. Mary, in Akron. On the road in visiting arenas before games.
The result: He shot 40.3% on three-pointers in December.
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“I have the ability to make threes,” James told reporters. “It doesn’t drive my game. Teams sag off me or tempt me to shoot, I’ve got to go up and knock them down. I’ve got to keep defenses at bay and keep them off balance throughout the whole game where they’re just not keying in on my drive or keying in on my postups. I’ve got to be able to knock down some outside shots too, so I work on that as well.”
James is shooting 45.7% on three-pointers in his past seven games, including 4-of-8 against Golden State on Christmas and 4-of-8 against Charlotte on Saturday.
His proficiency has also helped soften the absence of shooting guard J.R. Smith, who is out until late March with a fractured right (shooting) thumb. The Cavs aren’t going to replace Smith’s shooting and ability to spread the floor, but they can compensate.
James understands that’s another area where he can make a difference. He is a career 34.1% three-pointer shooter and sagging off him and letting him shoot is the general rule for defenses. There is no reason to play him tight at the three-point line with his ability to drive to the basket and score.
But this season, James is making teams pay for sagging. When a defender is not within four feet of James, he is shooting 41.7% on three-pointers this season, according to nba.com/stats. That might not be Steph Curry accuracy on open threes, but it’s better than the 32.6% James shot on open threes last season.
“When you catch the ball and you’ve got shots in rhythm, he has to shoot it,” Cavs coach Ty Lue told reporters. “They work on his shooting every day. He can shoot the basketball. He makes 10, 11 in a row every time they’re doing their shooting. But he doesn’t like to come down, one pass sometimes, shot. But just take them in rhythm because he can shoot the basketball. So for me, it’s not a matter of can he make them, it’s a matter of him taking them.”
On those catch-and-shoot threes Lue referenced, James is making 49.1% of his shots. That puts too much pressure on defenses and opens up the game for James and his teammates.
“It’s always a rhythm thing for me at times, so I’m just in a really good rhythm right now,” James said. “My body feels great. My stroke feels pretty dang good as well. I’ve just got to continue to put the work in.”
James is shooting 38.4% on threes this season. Who knows if that percentage holds up but if it did, it would be the second-highest of his career, behind 40.6% he shot with Miami in 2012-13.
Look closer at his season, and he is producing at an impressive, high-efficiency rate, scoring 25.6 points per game, shooting 51.1% from the field and the Cavs score 114.9 points per 100 possessions with James on the floor.
He is part of the MVP discussion, and if not for the incredible seasons Houston’s James Harden and Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook are assembling, James would be on his way to his fifth MVP. He still might get it.
Especially if he keeps making three-pointers the way he has been.