The Lakers — even a reluctant Frank Vogel — all loved Dwight Howard hitting a three against the Jazz

If you told a Lakers fans that Dwight Howard was going to attempt a 3-pointer before the season started, they probably would have offered to personally pay for Howard’s one-way ticket out of Los Angeles. However, at the tail end of a 121-96 blowout win on the road, anything goes and Howard quite literally shot his shot.

With 4.9 seconds on the shot clock, Rajon Rondo inbounded the ball to Howard, who as camped out in the corner as if he’s been shooting 3-pointers from the corner his entire career. Howard jab-stepped (even though his defender, Tony Bradley, was nowhere near him) and then finally knocked down his seventh career 3-pointer.

It was like seeing a shooting star.

Unsurprisingly, the Lakers’ bench ate it up, including head coach Frank Vogel, although he told reporters after the game that he’d prefer Howard didn’t make a habit of it (via Spectrum SportsNet):

“It’s one of those like the scene from ‘Major League’ where Willie Mays Hays catches it over his shoulder and the manager says ‘great catch, don’t ever do it again.’ It was one of those situations. But we’ll take the 3-points for sure.”

LeBron James, on the other hand, had no problem with Howard taking a shot that he said he sees Howard practice all the time:

“He works on that shot every day, and obviously that’s not a part of our offense, but sometimes it calls for that… We had a good time on the bench for sure and obviously he was excited about it too.”

Danny Green went as far as to say Howard is one of the better shooters on the team and with Howard at 50% on the season, he’s not technically wrong:

“Dwight is definitely our best shooter. Him and Rondo are our best shooters by far. I’m still working on trying to catch those guys… Rondo has been shooting the hell out of the ball and so is Dwight.”

However, while Howard is confident in hi 3-point shooting ability, he’s more concerned about his percentage from the charity stripe, where he’s struggled as of late:

“I told ‘Do if I had another chance at a three I was gonna make it tonight, so I was glad I had my feet set. I gotta make my free throws though, I’ve been bricking lately so I’ve just got to keep continuing to focus, get back to the line and knock ‘em down.”

One method Howard has considered taking to improve his free-throw shooting? Taking them from the 3-point line:

All in all, it was a fun night for Howard and the Lakers, and the best part about it is that they took care of business, too — improving their record to 19-3. Yes, they’re going to destroy worlds, but they’re going to have fun while they do it like Howard’s inspiration, Thanos.

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