The Los Angeles Lakers ‘ roller coaster start to the season continued on Saturday when they held off the New Orleans Pelicans down the stretch for a 104-99 victory, their fifth in a row. Now boasting the longest active winning streak in the Western Conference, the Lakers are up to fourth place at 9-4.
This current hot streak, which was preceded by a 1-4 skid, has been powered by Anthony Davis , who was tremendous against his former team. Davis put up 31 points and 14 rebounds on 12 of 20 from the field for his eighth 30-point game already this season.
As usual, Davis did most of his work in the paint and at the free-throw line, but he also went 2 of 4 from behind the arc. In a vacuum, that’s not particularly notable, but this was the fifth consecutive game that Davis made multiple 3s — the longest such streak in his career. Over these five games, Davis is 10 of 16 (62.5%) from 3-point range.
The Lakers have been begging Davis to shoot more 3-pointers for a few years now in order to improve their spacing and boost their offense. Prior to last season, Darvin Ham went as far as to say he wanted Davis taking six a game. There was more of the same ahead of this campaign from new coach JJ Redick , who said Davis has “got to be willing” to let it fly.