Raining 3s at full speed

12-point deficit.

The faith in Ellington has reached the point where he played all 12 minutes of Sunday’s fourth quarter.

“It’s a great luxury for us on several different levels,” Spoelstra said of this first season with Ellington on the roster. “One, he’s ignitable, so he can go on a run, where it’s two, three, four in a row. That can change the momentum of a game just like that.

“Secondly, he’s always in somebody’s game plan now, so that does create space unto itself. But, also, thirdly, it adds to our menu. So we’re not just pick-and-roll dominant. We’re not just putting the ball the in our attackers’ hands and telling them to create a play. We can run other actions with Wayne and he generates good looks for your basketball team.”

That has had Ellington on the move at the pace of a savvy veteran.

“Guys tend to relax in this league,” he said of mixing his speeds as he attempts to catch defenders off gait. “That’s kind of what I look for. When I’m coming off a screen and I know a play is coming my way, I kind of lure you to sleep. I jog a little bit and take off, or the other way around. Sometimes I run really fast and start going slow like the play is not for me, and I get open looks.

“So just little tricks of the trade I’ve learned have helped me out a lot.”

Ellington has offered the Heat a contrast to the pickand-roll game of Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside. This is not merely attempting to create mismatches, drawing a larger defender to the perimeter. This is running off endless screens, surveying the defense for seams.

“I’ve said it before, it’s becoming a lost art in the NBA,” Spoelstra said of Ellington’s relentless probing for openings. “The NBA’s becoming so pickand-roll dominant, and shooters coming up don’t train that way. That doesn’t happen by accident.”

Because of the unique approach, the chemistry had to evolve. It is why the success rate from beyond the arc has increased exponentially over the second half of the season.

“No question,” Ellington said. “It took time, it took time. I remember early in the year, we were trying to run Floppy or trying to run a play where I was coming off a screen and a guy would defend it a certain way, it would be something else, I would be open in a different area, but we would forget to track me or something like that.

“So it took time for guys to build confidence in each other and trust each other and really figure each others’ games out. The first half, at 11-30, that’s the time it took.”

Now the Fitbit is being challenged during games as well as on the practice court.

“I try to take open ones, rhythm ones,” he said in the wake of Sunday’s 5 of 11 from beyond the arc, as the Heat shift their attention to Wednesday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans at AmericanAirlines Arena. “Sometimes, depending on what’s going on in the game, we need one, especially when we’re trying to fight back. A 3-pointer can get you back a little quicker and can hurt the other team.

“So I had some timely ones. My teammates did a great job, like always, setting screens for me and getting me open and finding me.”

TONY DEJAK/AP The Heat’s Wayne Ellington has had at least three 3-pointers in each of the last seven games.