![\"Rui](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269804824-e1776078939702.jpg\")
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LeBron James chats with Rui Hachimura during a break against Oklahoma Thunder at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> ranked a mediocre 23rd in the league<\/a> in three-pointers made (11.8) and 16th in 3P% (35.9) during the 2025-26 regular season. However, Rui Hachimura<\/a> emerged as one of the league\u2019s most efficient shooters, averaging 1.7 made threes per game at an excellent 44.3% clip.<\/p>\n Hachimura was so efficient that he ranked fourth in the NBA <\/a>among all players who attempted at least 3.5 threes per game. Only Bobby Portis (45.6%), Cam Spencer<\/a> (44.9%) and Jaylon Tyson<\/a> (44.6%) shot the ball better than the Lakers forward.<\/p>\n In the process, Hachimura set a new Lakers franchise record as the most efficient three-point shooter over the course of a season, eclipsing the previous benchmarks set by Vladimir Radmanovic (44.1% in 2008-09) and Steve Nash (43.8% in 2012-13).<\/p>\n Rui Hachimura just had the highest 3PT% in a single season in Lakers history (44.3%). <\/p>\n Hachimura Steps Up in New Role<\/p>\n During the season finale against the Utah Jazz<\/a> on Sunday, Hachimura shot 60% from deep, bringing his overall season tally to 116 threes on just 262 attempts.<\/p>\n Even more impressively, Hachimura made 11 threes at a clip of 60% in his last five games to end the season on a strong note. Incidentally, the Japanese-American player started the final five games of the season<\/a> after Luka Doncic<\/a> (hamstring strain) and Austin Reaves<\/a> (oblique strain) were sidelined with injuries.<\/p>\n With Doncic and Reaves not expected back for the first round of the playoffs, Hachimura is a shoo-in to retain his starting role next to Deandre Ayton, LeBron James, Marcus Smart<\/a> and Luke Kennard<\/a>.<\/p>\n NBA Playoffs: Lakers vs. Rockets<\/p>\n Looking ahead to the first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets<\/a>, Hachimura wants to step up defensively, drawing inspiration from the team\u2019s best defensive player, Marcus Smart.<\/p>\n \u201cI know the playoffs is a totally different game, every year I learned that,\u201d Hachimura said after Sunday\u2019s 131-107 win, via Lakers beat writer Ryan Ward.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cLiterally, the first game of the playoff is, is the next day is like, really sore, because how physical we get and I think that, especially, we play Houston, right?<\/p>\n \u201cHouston\u2019s a very physical team, athletic team, so we gotta be ready for that. I think that having Marcus back, he helps and we\u2019re gonna be ready for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Rui Hachimura on how Lakers guard Marcus Smart adds physicality to the defense: \u201cI know the playoffs is a totally different game, every year I learned that. Literally, the first game of the playoff is, is the next day is like, really sore, because how physical we get and I think<\/p>\n Lakers head coach JJ Redick<\/a> said his shorthanded team is ready for a battle.<\/p>\n \u201cThe playoffs to me are all about resiliency,\u201d he said, via LakersNation.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe team that is unwilling to let go of the rope for the longest time obviously will win the series.\u201d<\/p>\n On facing Houston, Redick said, \u201cThere\u2019s no easy matchup. Houston is obviously a really good basketball team. We\u2019re going to prepare and fight and try to win the series.\u201d<\/p>\n Game 1 of the Lakers vs. Rockets playoff series tips off at 5:30 p.m. local time at the Crypto.com Arena. The Rockets open Game 1 as -4.5 favorites, while the Lakers are massive +550 underdogs<\/a> to win the series, per ESPNBet.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty LeBron James chats with Rui Hachimura during a break against Oklahoma Thunder at Crypto.com Arena in Los…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-389858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}