With a 29-foot splash early in the first quarter of Monday night’s 144-138 home win over the Atlanta Hawks, LaMelo Ball slid past point guard predecessor Baron Davis and into the franchise record books with his 47th consecutive game with at least one 3-point field goal.
That basket ended up being the first of six 3-pointers in the contest for Ball, moving him into seventh place on the franchise’s all-time leaderboard with 435. On top of that, Ball finished with 30 points, six rebounds and a career-high-tying 15 assists, making him the only Hornet and fourth-youngest NBA player to ever record a 30-point, five-rebound, 15-assist game.
Ball’s 3-pointer streak first began with a pair of triples in the Hornets’ 142-120 road win in New Orleans on March 11, 2022 and ran through the end of the 2021-22 regular season campaign into this one. His most recent appearance without a 3-pointer came two days prior on March 7 in a 115-101 home loss to Boston, where all four of his long-distance attempts failed to drop.
As for fellow former third overall pick Davis, his streak began on April 15, 2001 with one 3-pointer in each of the final three games of the 2000-01 season, then rolled through the first 43 outings of the 2001-02 campaign before it was halted with a 0-of-4 clip in San Antonio on Jan. 29, 2002. The record-setting 46th game of Davis’ run actually featured a streak and season-high six 3-pointers leading to 34 points in a home win over Houston on Jan. 26, 2002.
Unlike Ball, all 46 games for Davis came consecutively without a single missed appearance. Ball played in only three of the Hornets’ first 27 games this season because of multiple ankle sprains, although re-finding that shooting stroke is quite a challenge in itself. For what it’s worth, Davis failed to register a 3-pointer in Game 3 of the 2001 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series with Miami and then twice again in Game 2 and Game 3 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals against Milwaukee. If the postseason was included, Davis’ streak would have actually been 47 – he had 3-pointers in each of the final four playoff games in 2001 plus the ensuing 43 – and Ball would currently be at 48 counting last year’s Play-In Game.
Steph Curry owns the NBA record with 227 consecutive regular season games with at least one 3-pointer, a stretch that began on Dec. 1, 2018 and is still active at the moment. The four-time champion also owns the longest such streak counting the postseason at 231 games, which ended after he missed all nine of his 3-point attempts in a Game 5 victory over Boston in the NBA Finals last June.
The youngest player in NBA history to make a 3-pointer in at least 35 straight games, Ball’s streak is the third-longest active one in the league, trailing only Curry, Damian Lillard (65) and just ahead of Lauri Markkanen (45), Paul George (38) and Jordan Poole (38). Unsurprisingly, Curry owns the NBA record for most consecutive games with a 3-pointer within the confines of a single regular season, going 79 in a row during the 2015-16 campaign on his way to unanimous MVP honors.
Ball is averaging career highs in both nightly 3-pointers made (3.8) and 3-point attempts (10.5), while shooting 36.6% from downtown. While the volume is certainly high – the fourth-highest in the league, in fact – Ball’s streak is a testament to his improved mechanics, consistency and above all else, confidence. Provided he avoids any sort of early-game injury (knock on wood), Ball’s shot-taking and efficiency could eventually put this record well out of reach when it’s all said and done.