High-volume three-point shooting appears here to stay in NBA

Goran Dragic of the Miami HeatThe three-point line made its debut in the NBA on Oct. 12, 1979, and nine games opened the season that night.

Across those games, the 18 teams made only eight threes. Some, like the San Diego Clippers or New Jersey Nets, didn’t bother attempting any.

Those numbers appear quaint when compared to the modern NBA, where a quarter may not go by without eight threes falling.

There was a lot of discussion in the early days of the three-point line that it might tarnish the game. That it wasn’t pure basketball.

But decades went by without teams fully embracing the game-changing potential of the three-point shot. For years, boxscores resembled that first night. That first…