D’Angelo Russell matched Nick Van Exel’s single-season franchise 3-point shooting record in the Los Angeles Lakers’ breezy 136-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday at Crypto.com Arena. With Anthony Davis available, the Lakers bounced back from their bizarre loss to the Golden State Warriors — and hopped back over them in the playoff race.
The Lakers (37-32) took advantage of a spotty Hawks defense, shooting 57.8% from the field and 41.7% from 3. LeBron James poured in 25 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds. Six Lakers hit double figures. They had 39 assists on 52 buckets.
The only rough patch came at the very start. Jalen Johnson opened the festivities with a thundering poster on Austin Reaves.
“That might be the first time I’ve ever been like, really dunked on,” said Reaves. “I don’t know. Super athletic kid. He got one.”
The dunk jump-started an 11-2 Hawks lead.
“The whole sequence, that being the start, them kinda having that run. I’m sitting there like, ‘Sh-t’, that’s what started it all. But we responded really well.”
From then on, it was all Lakers.
Russell, as he can’t seem to stop doing in 2024, caught fire. DLo made six of his 10 3-point attempts on his way to a team-high 27 points. He shot 8-of-14 and added 10 assists and four rebounds in 30 minutes.
“It’s great to see how well he’s playing overall,” said Darvin Ham. “He’s hands down our best shooter on our team. … His prowess from the 3-point line is really, really elite, and we need every bit of it. ”
Ham cut off a question on the nature of Russell’s “green light.”
“He has a green room. Not a green light. A green room.”
Russell has 183 made triples in 64 games. He’s shooting a career-high 41.9% from distance — and he’s been even hotter, at higher volume, since the calendar turned. For the season, the Lakers rank 27th in made 3s per game.
“I appreciate him trusting me to that extent,” Russell said about Ham’s ‘green room’ comment. “Definitely tried to feel like I earned something like that. It’s not given.”
Russell isn’t just the best sniper on the current Lakers; he just might be the best ever. For all their success, the Lakers have been as consistently devoid of high-volume shooters as any franchise since the line was implemented in 1979, evidenced by the nearly 30-year gap since Van Exel’s 1994-95 mark.
“That’s really cool, honestly,” Russell said. “Just to know that, to get credit for it. It’s just really cool. I don’t want to understate it, overdo it. It just feel like it’s really cool to be a part of something like that.”
Russell was drafted by the Lakers with the No. 2 overall pick, traded unceremoniously by Magic Johnson, then benched in last year’s playoffs. He shook off an ice-cold December, a benching, a tailbone injury, and months of trade rumors to become a reliable sparkplug.
“It’s a big thing for him. Big thing for us as a team,” AD said about Russell setting the record. “Obviously, it’s been a lot going on around DLo and just to be able to do that and us embracing him and he sees that, feels the love. That’s good for him. He’ll break it on Friday, for sure.”
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