Miami Heat 3-point shooting: the good, the bad and the ugly
By Rob Slater
The Miami Heat relied on the 3-point shot to revive their season last year, and will need it once again as they look to build towards the playoffs.
It’s only been three games, but already we’ve seen the extreme importance of the Miami Heat’s 3-point shooting. On many nights, it will be the difference between winning and losing.
On opening night, the Heat struggled from deep going just 8-of-30 (27 percent), but bounced back over the next two games, where they made 14 3’s in each.
The formula for this edition of the Heat is simple: make the defense, respect your 3-point shot and the rest of the offense will open up. If the Heat have multiple legitimate shooting threats on the floor, their offensive spacing is maximized and the lanes for Goran Dragic, Josh Richardson, Justise Winslow and others to get to the rim, widen significantly. All of this together, makes the Heat a handful on offense.
Although three games is a small sample size, the Heat have already shown what happens when they’re making 3’s, and what happens when they aren’t. More than that, we’ve seen how it affects the flow of the game and more importantly the score.
While this new generation Heat team is well-known for their grind-it-out attitude and playing high-level defense, a part of the squad’s identity is also wrapped up in 3-point shooting. Fans got to see the development of that last year, starting with guys like Wayne Ellington and Luke Babbitt. And have already been able to see it’s continuation, even via Kelly Olynyk, who just joined the group this summer.
Nailing the 3-ball game is one of Miami’s offensive priorities, so let’s take a look at how they’re doing so far this season.