LA Clippers: 3 reasons they will win the 2020-21 NBA title

1. The LA Clippers are the best 3-point shooting team in the league

As a team, the LA Clippers are shooting 34.5 3-pointers per game. That number alone would seem ludicrous to a team playing just 10 years ago, but it’s simply an indicator of the direction the league is moving in, as it ranks only 15th this season. A decade ago the Orlando Magic lead the league with 25.6 attempts per game, and the Clippers’ 34.5 mark would have ranked first as recently as 2016.

What is unique about the Clippers is not just their volume, but their accuracy. The Clippers are hitting 41.6 percent of their 3-pointers, which is by far the highest mark in the league. They are as far ahead of the second-place Milwaukee Bucks as the Bucks are ahead of the 15th-place Chicago Bulls.

Their number is so strong, in fact, that it is on pace to rank second all-time in team 3-point percentage for a season, just ahead of the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors. The only team to shoot better for a season was the 1996-97 Charlotte Hornets, who his 42.8 percent of their 16.9 attempts per game with a shortened line. The Clippers are hitting their mark on more than twice the attempts, and alone of the two aforementioned teams, doing so without a member of the Curry family on the roster.

Paul George is having an elite shooting season, hitting 42.2 percent of his 7.6 attempts per game. Marcus Morris is taking 5.4 attempts per game himself, shooting a whopping 47.1 from behind the arc. Among players with at least 100 minutes with the team, the Clippers have seven players shooting at least five 3-pointers per-36 and hitting over 40 percent of them. Kawhi Leonard misses the list but shoots 39.3 on his attempts.

The Clippers are having one of the best shooting seasons in NBA history, and that accuracy and volume is spread across the roster. Opponents cannot take away one elite shooter, because nearly every rotation player on the team is comfortable letting it fly and used to the shot going in. There are no weak spots, no players to leave open from outside.

Last season the Clippers fell well short of their goal, but that doesn’t have to define this year. Plenty of teams fell short one season just to win the next year, especially when star players come together for the first time. This team has a new head coach, a bolstered bench and a more versatile collection of centers. With the 3-point shooting and two-way wings a team needs to win in the modern NBA, the LA Clippers will win the title this season.