Before Thursday, you might’ve thought it was impossible to win a game making five or fewer three-point shots in the playoffs while taking at least 25 — only nine teams had ever done it in league history.
But Denver managed to do it in Game 3, throwing some water on the Lakers’ feelings that, if only they’d made some shots.
Still, the Lakers had been one of the NBA’s best offenses heading into the playoffs only to, once again, be one of the NBA’s worst so far in their series with the Nuggets.
In Game 3, they went five-for-27 from three-point range. The Lakers shot worse from behind the arc just three times this season, with Thursday’s performance making Game 1’s eight-for-29 from deep look like a scorcher.
“It’s super frustrating,” Austin Reaves said. “I know after the trade deadline, even a little before that, our offense was clicking on all cylinders. And we were outscoring people more than we were beating people with our defense. … But like you said, our offense has struggled, and it’s super frustrating. Losing sucks. That’s all anybody should care about in our locker room is us losing right now. It shouldn’t be anything else other than that, and that’s it.”
