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Film Room: Making Threes or Defending Threes?

ORLANDO – NBA teams combined to make a league-record 25,807 3-pointers last season, 2,059 more than the prior year. It was actually the sixth straight season NBA clubs collectively set a new 3-point record.

So, it’s safe to assume that a team must be elite from 3-point range if they expect to finish near the top of the final standings, right?

Believe it or not, that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, only half of the teams that ranked in the top 10 in threes made and attempted qualified for the playoffs in 2018. The five teams from this group that missed the postseason – Brooklyn, Dallas, Denver, Atlanta and Chicago – all averaged at least 11 makes and 30 attempts from long distance.