LeBron James was scorching hot from downtown on Sunday night, making 9-of-10 three-pointers on his way to 40 points, seven rebounds, five assists and a 116-104 road win over the Brooklyn Nets. James’ nine three-point makes tied a career-high.
Speaking after the game, LeBron discussed his increasingly accurate long-range shooting in the latter stages of his career.
“I don’t ever have to lean on [3-pointers] because I can do so much — I can score on any level on the floor basically once I cross half court,” James said. “But being able to have a growth mindset and be able to work on things that the league is changing to, the league is a heavy 3-point shooting league.
“I’m not one of those guys that wants to go out there and shoot 12, 14 or 15 3s per game. But I want to be respected, and teams have to play me from the outside. That’s still kind of one thing teams [think] … ‘If we have to give up something, we’d much rather him shoot the ball from the outside.’”
Meanwhile, Lakers coach Darvin Ham was over the moon about James’ performance postgame.
“It’s incredible,” Ham said. “I told him in the huddle before his last little stretch and we ultimately subbed him out [that I was] just extremely thankful that he packed the cape on the road trip. Needed all nine of those 3s.”
The Lakers have now won six of their past seven games. They sit in ninth-place in the Western Conference, one and a half games ahead of the tenth-placed Warriors.
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