Above and beyond the arc
e NBA is about to set another three-point record
Another year. Another record. e NBA’S three-point craze is not slowing down.
Sometime this weekend, someone will connect from beyond the arc and take the NBA to yet another long-distance level.
For the sixth consecutive season, NBA teams will combine to set a league-wide three-point record. ere have already been 23,635 three-pointers made this season, and the league is more than eight per cent ahead of the pace established last year, when the total across the NBA was 23,748.
So clearly, the reliance on the three- pointer is not going to lessen any time soon.
“I think it’s a trend for a while — but at some point it has to peak,” said Cleveland forward Kevin Love, one of the many NBA big men who has no trouble making threes, and that’s a big reason why the totals are soaring. “Every position is now shooting threes. You see that as such a weapon. It makes the game fun, makes it interesting. ere’s de nitely a lot of spacing out there and it’s wild to see.”
ing is, that peak isn’t visible. Out of 30 teams, 19 are either on pace to set — or have already set — franchise records for made threes this season, and a couple others are within reasonable striking distance.
ere are shooters now all over the league. Only four seasons ago, the total of NBA players who made at least 100 threes was 57. is year, that total is going to be close to doubled. Across the NBA this season, 91 per cent of players have attempted at least one three-pointer and 81 per cent of players have made at least one.
Rookies are making them; Utah’s Donovan Mitchell has 172 and is closing in on the record for a rst-year player, that being 185 by Portland’s Damian Lillard.
Also making them are sevenfooters; eight guys listed at seven feet tall or higher will likely get to the 100 mark by the end of the season.
And the league as a whole is actually getting better at them. Accuracy from three-point range has gone up about 1.5 per cent over the last three seasons, definitely one of the reasons why scoring per game is higher than it’s been at any point in nearly 30 years.
“We all like to get out there, shoot a lot of threes, spread the oor and try to move the ball as much as you can,” Houston coach Mike D’antoni said. “Everybody is more or less the same ... with the same outline. Just get it done in di erent ways.”
e rst season where the NBA combined to make 15,000 threepointers was 2009-10, and that seems like ages ago. e 20,000 plateau was broken just two seasons ago, and barring something very unusual this season’s total will top 25,000.
Love knew the three-point pace was higher than ever. But he didn’t think the record would be set this early, and that the previous mark would be obliterated.
“Wow. Wow. Wow,” Love said, upon hearing the numbers.
Wow is right.
e single-team mark is also about to fall, and then get left in the dust for good measure.
Houston, which is quite obviously ourishing in D’antoni’s free- owing system and has the league’s best overall record, needs only 19 threes to set a season record and break the mark that the Rockets established ... you guessed it, last season.
e Rockets average 15.5 threes per game. It was only two years ago that Golden State became the rst team to make 1,000 threes in a season — and the Rockets are on pace to get near 1,300 this season.
“It’s safe to say a Mike D’antoni team will be the rst team that averages 50 threes in a game,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said.
“We can laugh at that now. But it will happen, and his team will probably be the rst to do it. His rst team that allegedly changed the game only averaged 23 threes a game, that 2004-05 Suns team. And look where they are now, basically doubling that up almost.”
He’s exaggerating for e ect, but only slightly.
That team in Phoenix averaged just under 25 three-point attempts per game.