MIAMI _ He entered 2 of 10 on 3-pointers for the season, 11 of 45 this month when counting the preseason. Wayne Ellington also entered with no doubts inside the Miami Heat locker room or coaching suite.
Because the man with the golden arm was due. So he loaded, locked and launched during the second quarter of Monday night's 104-93 victory over the Atlanta Hawks at AmericanAirlines Arena.
If not for that effort, who knows how this might have turned out, considering the Heat blew all of a 21-point third-quarter lead before holding on.
Shooting 6 of 7 beyond the arc in that second quarter, Ellington pushed the Heat to an 18-point halftime lead with his 19 points in the period. The six 3s set a franchise record for a second quarter and tied Brian Shaw's 1993 record for any quarter.
His teammates then stepped up from there after a harrowing third quarter, the Heat, at 2-1, over .500 for the first time since winning last season's opener against the Orlando Magic.
Forward Josh Richardson led the Heat with 21 points, supported by 20 from Ellington and 19 from point guard Goran Dragic, with Kelly Olynyk adding 10 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.
It was nothing short of a 3-for-all for the Heat in the first half, shooting 13 of 23 from beyond, the most 3-pointers in a half in the franchise's 30 seasons.
Then came the hard part, with the Hawks eventually tying it at 77 and at 79 early in the fourth quarter, with the Heat just 1 of 14 on 3-pointers in the second half.
The schedule on this six-game homestand gets progressively tougher from here, with the San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves up next, but on this night the Heat did what needed to be done against a short-handed, fatigued opponent.
Actually, both teams were short-handed.
The Heat were without center Hassan Whiteside for a second consecutive game due a bone bruise on his left knee.
"He's feeling better. He's doing more," coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Asked about the approach with Whiteside going forward, Spoelstra said, "Stay with the routine, and he's doing a great job with that."
That had the Heat for the second consecutive game opening with Jordan Mickey at center, James Johnson at power forward, Richardson at small forward, Dion Waiters at shooting guard and Dragic at point guard.
The Heat continue to play in the absence of former starting small forward Rodney McGruder, had underwent leg surgery last week.
The Hawks, who lost Sunday on the road to the Brooklyn Nets, were without starting point guard Dennis Schroder and starting power forward Ersan Ilyasova. The Hawks opened with journeyman Malcolm Delaney at point guard and veteran Mike Muscala at power forward ahead of first-round pick John Collins, the West Palm Beach Cardinal Newman High School product.
The Heat had to alter their early rotation when Waiters was forced to the bench with his second foul with 6:56 left in the opening period.
The Heat continued with their rotation of Tyler Johnson, Olynyk, Justise Winslow and Ellington as their first four reserves.
The Heat pushed to an early nine-point lead only to see the Hawks close within 26-23 by the close of the first quarter. Richardson scored 10 in the opening period, which also included five Heat turnovers and a blown dunk in transition by Winslow.
That's when Ellington took over, doing to a Heat opponent what he had done against the Heat while wearing the jerseys of the Memphis Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets, performances that were among the reasons the Heat signed him during the 2016 offseason.
The game then turned chippy in the third period, when Hawks forward Taurean Prince was assessed a Flagrant 1 foul for a shove against Dragic, with Dragic, Waiters and Hawks center Dewayne Dedmon called for technical fouls for the ensuring tussle. All three ensuing free throws were missed.
Prince entered with a history against the Heat, with a hard foul last season against Whiteside and then a scrap with James Johnson.
The sequence came after the Hawks trimmed what had been a 21-point Heat lead to 11, on the way to reducing the deficit to 77-73 going into the fourth quarter. The Heat shot just 6 of 21 in the third.
Richardson then stepped up in the fourth, to help push the Heat back to a 10-point lead at 94-85, with 3:30 to play, with the Heat putting it away from there.
The teams split last season's four games, with the Heat going 1-1 against the Hawks at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat entered just 2-4 at home against the Hawks since 2014-15.
For the second time in as many home games, the Heat are caught an opponent on the second night of a back-to-back set, as they did in Saturday's victory over the Indiana Pacers.
The game was the fourth on a season-opening five-game trip for the Hawks, who do not play their home opener until Friday.
