Miami Heat: 3-point shooting troubles a thing of the past

The Miami Heat’s days of 3-point shooting trouble are now a thing of the past, as guys like Joe Johnson and Josh Richardson have stepped up.

When it came to 3-point shooting earlier this season, the Miami Heat were not exactly known for their success rate. In fact, at one point, they were the third worst 3-point shooting team in the league. But now, that is all a thing of the past.

And just in time too. With the Heat continuing to make their playoff push, coming up strong from beyond-the-arc will only help their game.

As of Wednesday, Miami sits in third place in the Eastern Conference, coming off of a loss against the San Antonio Spurs. The 2014 Finals rematch ended 112-88, bringing the Heat’s record to 41-30.

But such a loss has not been the norm for the organization, as of late.

As a team, the boys in South Beach have brought their 3-point shooting percentage up to the third best in the NBA. And their percentage for this month alone, tops the league. So what happened? How did Miami turn things around, in only a couple of months?

The first answer can be found within a brilliant move made by none other than Heat president Pat Riley.

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Last month, Riley signed 34-year-old Joe Johnson, who had just been waived by the Brooklyn Nets. And while some had already cast him aside, calling him washed up and urging him to retire, all in all Heat Nation seemed pretty riled up over their newly acquired veteran. The good news of course being that so far, Johnson has gone above and beyond just proving himself: he has thrived.

Over his 15-year career, Johnson is a 37.3 percent 3-point shooter.

Currently, his numbers sit at 15.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.3 assist per game, while shooting 55.6 percent, and most notably 56.1 percent from the 3-point line. In fact, good old ISO Joe has made more 3-pointers than guys like Kobe Bryant.

Then there is rookie Josh Richardson, who had a solid Summer League debut but was quiet for the majority of the season…until now.

The 22-year-old is anything but lately, causing quite a stir in the media. Drafted No. 40 overall by Miami, this month the guard is averaging 12.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists a matchup, on 56.3 percent shooting. He is also going 61.5 percent from beyond-the-arc, a skill that Richardson is bent on perfecting.