Babbitt looking like Miami’s new man with the golden arm

WASHINGTON — Luke Babbitt not only was injected back into the playoff race with his Feb. 8 trade to the Miami Heat, he also was reissued his launch orders from coach Erik Spoelstra.

So the veteran forward did just that, at a prolific rate, in the first quarter of Monday’s 125-103 victory over the Phoenix Suns.

He opened with three 3-point misses ... and followed with four successive 3-point conversions.

“I love the fact that he kept on shooting,” said Spoelstra, as he turned his attention to Tuesday’s game against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena. “He missed his first three threes and that’s a big test. Everyone on the bench is starting to lean forward — when he gets the next open one is he going to shot fake or is he going to let it rip?” Babbitt met the mandate. “Just make the next one,” he said.

The trade has not only put Babbitt back into the playoff picture, but it also has left him able to pick up where he left off last season as the Heat’s starting power forward during most of the 30-11 run to the finish of 2016-17.

“It definitely feels similar, just because the group is the same, it’s a very similar starting lineup to last year,” he said of Hassan Whiteside at center, Goran Dragic at point guard. “So it’s familiar. That’s what’s helped me step in, and the guys are making it easy on me.”

The Heat allowed Babbitt to depart as a free agent in July after adding Kelly Olynyk in free agency. Spoelstra quipped shortly after that signing that he would like to see Olynyk one day attempt 20 3-pointers in a game.

Babbitt, who had no reason for such a prolific total in Monday’s blowout victory, is not sure he could comfortably go that high.

“Twenty?” he said, “yeah, that’s over the top.”

Not to Spoelstra, who appreciates that merely creating the threat of a 3-point conversion opens the floor for teammates such as Whiteside and Dragic.

“We want him to keep on going,” said Spoelstra, whose team is playing in the injury absence of 3-point specialist Wayne Ellington, who has become known as the Heat’s man with the golden arm, making the returning Babbitt something of the man with the olden arm. “It’s a matter of percentages with him. He is an exceptional shooter. Exceptional. We want to maximize that as much as possible and then eventually teams start to adjust and spacing becomes a big positive for us just because it will open up driving lanes.

“You have to let it fly to be able to do that. If he gets enough of them up there, it’s like Wayne. You play the odds; you play the percentages.” So let it fly. “We encourage him to shoot it,” Dragic said. “He’s really a deadly shooter. When he’s making those shots, it makes it so much easier on us. We don’t want him to pass the ball. When he’s open he needs to shoot it.”