"It's a euphoric feeling": LeBron James waxes lyrical about shooting 3s, reminisces vintage performance vs Nets
Throughout his career, LeBron James has never been known for being a strong 3-point shooter. Nevertheless, the 20-time All-Star recently revealed how he feels when he's locked in from beyond the arc.
On his "Mind the Game" podcast with JJ Redick, LeBron looked back on one of his more impressive shooting performances. The LA Lakers star reffered to it as euphoric when he's got his outside shot going.
"It's a different feeling when you're shooting that three ball like that," LeBron said. "It's just a I don't know, it's a euphoric feeling that that's different from catching a lob dunk for myself.
When you shooting that three ball at a high clip like I was doing in Brooklyn, it was like that was one of the best feelings for sure."
For his career, LeBron James is shooting 34.8% from the 3-point range. Nevertheless, he's coming of his best shooting season in year 20.
LeBron shot 41% from deep in the regular season on just over five attempts per game. This was his best percentage in nearly a decade, as he shot 40.6% from three in 2013 while with the Miami Heat.
What instance is LeBron James referring to in his podcast?
The game against the Brooklyn Nets LeBron James is referring to came on March 31. He tied his season-high in that game with 40 points, largely because of his three-point shooting.
LeBron has never been a high-volume outside shooter, but that wasn't the case in this matchup. He let it fly from deep 10 times and managed nine of the attempts. Behind this strong offensive outing, the LA Lakers secured a double-digit victory.
To put into persepctive how rare this shooting performance was, it marked only the second time this season LeBron attempted double-digit threes. The first instance came at the end of February against the LA Clippers. LeBron shot 12 threes that night, making seven.
This shooting outburst tied a career-high for LeBron James with nine made threes. He also achieved this feat in a game last season. As far as attempts go, the most shots he has put up from beyond the arc in one game is 14.
In his younger years, LeBron was a constant downhill threat due to his superb athleticism. Now approaching the age of 40, he doesn't have that same explosiveness. Because of this, he's had to tap into areas like his three-point shot more in recent years.
LeBron is aging gracefully with two decades of playing time under his belt. However, his growth as an outside shooter will only help him elongate his career more.