MIAMI _ This will go down as the most prolific three-point shooting team in Miami Heat history.
The Heat set a new franchise record with 22 made threes on 44 attempts in Wednesday's win over the Orlando Magic. The previous team record for threes made in a game was 21 against the Charlotte Hornets on April 5, 2017.
And the Heat is on track to shatter almost every other three-point mark in its record book, currently on pace to finish the season with 1,099 made threes on 2,856 three-point attempts. The current single-season franchise records in these categories are: 928 made threes on 2,586 three-point attempts last season.
Miami also entered Thursday ranked second in the NBA in team three-point percentage this season at 38.5% behind only the Utah Jazz. Only one other Heat team in franchise history finished a season with a more efficient percentage (39.6% in 2012-13), but this season's number is more impressive considering that 2012-13 roster took just 1,809 threes.
"It's huge. The league is going toward that direction," guard Goran Dragic said, with the Heat beginning a two-game trip Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans. "Our sharing of the ball is unbelievable. Everybody is passing to each other and from there on you have a lot of open threes."
It's not just that the Heat is making a lot of threes. The three-pointer has played as big a part in Miami's success this season as any other area of the game.
With the Heat's usually top-10 defense statistically mediocre this season, it has had to rely on a top-10 offense to win a lot of games. Miami entered Thursday with the league's seventh-best offensive rating and 14th-best defensive rating, an unusual spot for the Heat since the last time it finished with its offense ranked ahead of its defense was in 2013-14.
In fact, the Heat's offense has only finished a season ranked ahead of its defense five times since the 2000-01 campaign. And in two of those five seasons, Miami won the NBA championship (2005-06 and 2012-13).
This season, it's the three-point shot that has been the catalyst behind the Heat's offensive success. Miami is averaging the league's fifth-fewest paint points per game (44.4) and has generated the league's fifth-highest percentage of points from behind the three-point line (35.7 percent).
In simpler terms, there is a clear correlation between three-point shooting and the result of each Heat game. And that correlation is arguably as strong as ever, with Miami owning a 34-10 record this season when it makes 12 or more threes in a game and a 6-12 record when it finishes below that number.
"I just think the body and ball movement is the key to those three-point looks," Heat forward Jae Crowder said. "I feel like we do a good job of moving without the ball. We do a good job of moving the ball and I think that generates threes. We have good enough people that get into the paint and collapse the defense, and we're playing unselfish. I think you have to have an unselfish style of play to generate threes and generate looks. I think we have that and it's been clicking for us lately."
One of the most surprising parts of the Heat's three-point barrage this season is that its two All-Stars haven't accounted for many of them. Bam Adebayo (1 of 13 on threes) and Jimmy Butler (29 of 117) have combined to shoot 30 of 130 or 23.1% from deep.
While the three-point shot is still not a big part of Adebayo's game, this marks Butler's worst three-point percentage since he made 18.2% of his threes as a rookie with the Chicago Bulls in 2011-12. But Adebayo and Butler are effective around the basket, with 86.2% of the duo's made shots this season coming from inside the paint.
Pair Adebayo and Butler's ability to get into the paint and collapse the defense, with a group of quality shooters and you have the formula that has worked for the Heat's offense this season.
Duncan Robinson is the best among Miami's shooters, ranked third in the NBA with 225 made threes this season while making them at an incredibly efficient clip of 44.6 percent. Then there's Kendrick Nunn (121 made threes on 35.7% shooting from deep), Dragic (117, 38.9 percent), Kelly Olynyk (80, 44 percent), and Crowder (33, 41.8% in 11 games with the Heat).
That's not even counting the injured duo of Tyler Herro and Meyers Leonard, who have both missed 13 consecutive games. Herro has made 99 threes on 39.3% shooting from three-point range and Leonard has hit 51 threes on 42.9% shooting from behind the arc.
"It's important," coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked what the three-pointer has meant to this season's Heat offense. "It's like a symbiotic relationship for (Adebayo and Butler) to be able to operate and attack, and be able to be effective in the paint and at the rim. They need space. Our guys provide that, the spacing. And the attacker's ability to draw extra defenders ... it all works hand-in-hand."
