Saturday night brought a much-needed win for the struggling Los Angeles Lakers, as they visited the Golden State Warriors and outscored them every quarter, en route to a 129-101 victory.
It was a 53 percent shooting night for the Lakers, and a 46 percent shooting night from three-point range. Luka Doncic led all Lakers scorers with 26 points while teammate LeBron James added 22 points in the win.
LeBron was 7-of-16 from the floor and 4-of-6 from downtown in his latest performance. Fittingly, King James also made history, joining Lakers legend Kobe Bryant with one of those shots he hit.
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The Lakers announced LeBron’s milestone of hitting 1,000 three-pointers as a member of the franchise. That’s a feat that only the late, great Kobe Bryant achieved in his career.
Kobe made 1,827 three-pointers during his 20-year Lakers career, which spanned from 1996 to 2016. Meanwhile, this is LeBron’s third NBA team in his 23 seasons.
He previously starred for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat before heading to the Lakers, where he won a championship with his third team. Per Basketball Reference, LeBron currently ranks sixth all-time in the NBA with over 2,600 three-pointers made.
He’s still over 180 three-pointers away from the No. 5 player on that list, Damian Lillard, who has been sidelined all season for the Portland Trail Blazers due to injury. Lillard should return next season, while it’s unclear what LeBron’s final season will be.
A reporter mentioned to LeBron after the game that he’d shot 19.3 percent from three-point range over the past 10 games, but had “a pretty good shooting night” against the Warriors.
“I’m comfortable in every shot I take. I could shoot 0.0 percent from the three-point line and believe I’ll make the next one. I been playing ball my life whole life so, not much of a numbers guy to be honest,” LeBron responded about his shooting comfort level.
LeBron was also asked about the team hitting 19 three-pointers against the Warriors and if good ball movement helped with that. King James indicated their mentality was what got them there.
“At the end of the day, I think our minds was right. Numbers will speak for itself. You can talk about the numbers. I just think mentally we knew what we was against, and we knew how we lost these last three games. It didn’t sit well with us, obviously,” he said.
The Lakers ended a three-game losing streak by defeating the Warriors and now look to build a winning streak. They’ll play another game Sunday night, visiting the Sacramento Kings as they try to extend their streak to two straight victories.
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