Los Angeles Lakers wing Jake LaRavia shoulders the burden of his ongoing slump and career-worst shooting from beyond the arc.
In the wake of his brutal slump, Jake LaRavia is mindful enough to acknowledge that he has to be better for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers forward opened up to Thuc Nhi Nguyen of The Los Angeles Times regarding his shooting struggles.
“I know I’m a good shooter, everyone on the staff knows I’m a good shooter, everyone on the team knows I’m a good shooter,” LaRavia said. “At some point, I have to make shots. Obviously, been in a slump pretty much this entire season outside of that first stretch of games where I was making some. But they’ll drop.”
As part of their efforts to continue building around Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and LeBron James, the Lakers have signed LaRavia via a two-year, $12 million contract.
A 3-and-D specialist, LaRavia excelled well in his support role for Los Angeles at the start of the season.
But right now, the 24-year-old suddenly regressed. He is averaging a career-worst 30.5 percent shooting from the outside, and only made three out of 17 shots from downtown over the last five games.
In the team's 103-88 Saturday loss against the LA Clippers, LaRavia failed to step up offensively upon Luka Doncic's early injury exit, as he went 0-4 from the three-point line. His misfires just contributed to the Lakers' worst shooting of the season by making just 34 of 88 shots (38.6%)
As the Lakers are slated to face a challenging stretch with Doncic potentially missing a significant time from his leg contusion, LaRavia definitely has to recover his shooting touch to help the team win.
Redeeming his shooting will start for LaRavia on Tuesday, as the Lakers will hit the road to face the Phoenix Suns again.
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