Kings star Sabonis leads NBA in surprising key shooting stat originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
It’s rare to see an NBA big man known for his 3-point shooting, but Kings center Domantas Sabonis is adding himself as another exception to that narrative with his marksmanship.
The Sacramento star is knocking down triples at a 48.4-percent clip during the 2024-25 NBA season — the best mark in the league above Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokić’s 47.1 percent. To put Sabonis’ current 3-point percentage into perspective, Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki owns the all-time mark for a big man at 47.1 percent.
Of course, Sabonis has just 93 3-point attempts this year compared to Jokić’s 157, but he’s still sinking them at a career-best pace. Before this season, Sabonis’ career-high 3-point percentage was 52.9 in 2018-19 — but he only attempted 17 shots from deep. Across the rest of his NBA career, Sabonis has averaged between 23.5 and 37.9 percent on threes.
“It’s something I’ve been working on ever since I started playing basketball,” Sabonis told reporters Sunday after Sacramento’s 123-100 win over the Washington Wizards at Golden 1 Center. “Sometimes it doesn’t happen overnight. You’ve got to keep doing it one summer, another offseason, another offseason. You just hope at one point you’re going to break through, and so far this year it’s been going in, so I’ve just got to keep sticking with it and shooting with confidence.”
The Kings are 9-1 in their last 10 games, and Sabonis has shot 15 of 23 from 3-point range during that span, or 65.2 percent. He finished 2 of 3 from deep in the Kings’ win over the Wizards, made his lone 3-point shot against the Houston Rockets on Thursday and drained a pair of threes against the Milwaukee Bucks last Tuesday.
The Kings certainly are benefitting from Sabonis’ behind-the-arc efforts, and the Sacramento big man is bringing a whole new meaning to the term triple-double.
