Atlanta Hawks: 3-pointers may be key vs. Heat

Vivlamore reporting from Miami – where I have taken my talents to South Beach (OK, that was bad and I’m sure done 100 times before but I couldn’t resist).

A quick post before I head to Hawks shoot-around prior to tonight’s game against the Heat. I spent too much time going over some statistics on my travels yesterday and the key to beating the Heat could be efficiency from 3-point range. The Heat have lost five of the seven games in which they allowed their opponent the highest 3-point field goal percentages.

Here is the list:

1.  58.3 percent (14-for-24) vs. Grizzlies – Loss

2.  52.8 percent (19-for-36) vs. Knicks – Loss

3.  47.6 percent (10-for-21) vs. Clippers – Loss

4.  46.2 percent (6-for-13) vs. Celtics – Win

5.  45.2 percent (14-for-31) vs. Cavaliers – Win

6.  40.9 percent (18-for-44) vs. Knicks – Loss

7.  36.8 percent (7-for-19) vs. Wizards – Loss

The Hawks shot 36.0 percent (9-for-25) in their November loss to the Heat.

Without Kyle Kover (back spasms), the Hawks will welcome back DeShawn Stevenson, who rested on the second game of a back-to-back in Saturday’s win over the Grizzles. As one of our fine posters pointed out, Stevenson has made 32 field goals this season, 28 of them have been 3-pointers. That is an .875 percentage rate. It turns out that is the second best percentage rate in the league behind only the Heat’s Shane Battier at .879 (29 of 33).

I will update after shoot-around.

- Chris Vivlamore

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