How the Knicks’ loss to the Heat can serve as a lesson in 3-point shooting

The New offensive philosophy of the New York Knicks was on full display through the team’s first three games this season. New head coach Mike Brown he encouraged the Knicks to shoot, pass and run more freely. And the players listened – especially when it came to shooting. New York is shooting significantly more 3-pointers this season. But his recent loss against the Miami Heat shows exactly why The Knicks would benefit from a little more structure in their offense.

The Knicks live and die by the three

The Knicks are in their first game of the 2025-26 season. They doubled up in the second game, making 45 3-pointers. New York had 35% and 38%, respectively. And not surprisingly, both of those games were wins.

But in their third game against Miami – their first game of the season – the Knicks made just 28% of their 54 3-point attempts. The Knicks either lacked the patience to look for second shots or seemed to have forgotten how to do it. And therein lies the problem with the perpetual green light to shoot and limited offensive plays to rely on.

For context, the Knicks hit 34 3-pointers per game last season, 27th in the NBA, although they made 37% of them (eighth in the league). That was clearly too little, considering how regularly they tried. But New York may have gone too far in the other direction during the first few games of 2025-26.

Of course, there are other reasons why the Knicks lost to the Heat. They shot poorly from the free throw line. They gave up 31 free throws. And they surrendered 31 fast break balls. But when possession counts as much as it does in the NBA, teams must consistently produce points. And when you shoot as poorly as the Knicks did against the Heat, you have to adjust — or you lose.

The Knicks need to figure out how to use threes – but not rely on them

It comes down to being more selective. When New York makes its threes, it works well. Obviously, if you can hit roughly 40% of almost 50 threes, the team should shoot him.

But when you only make 28% of your 3-point attempts, you have to look elsewhere for offense. And if you rely too much on threes, it becomes more difficult to organically find ways to score. Striking that balance will be vital to the Knicks’ success this season. Fortunately, it’s early enough in the season to expect everything to work itself out.

The move toward shooting 3-pointers has been underway throughout the NBA for some time, and it has continued this season. In the 2025-26 season, 10 teams are averaging 40 or more 3-point attempts per game. Only four teams averaged 40 or more last season. It is an intuitive result of a preference for increased tempo. But there is a pretty obvious difference between good shots and bad shots.

New York leads the NBA in 3-point attempts per game. But they must avoid falling into the bad habit of going for threes too quickly. Instead, they must view the 3-point shot as a weapon, shooting when they are open but using the space created by playing five-out layups to attack the basket.

Losing a relatively close game early in the season after winning the first two games should by no means signal the time to sound the alarm. It’s probably a good lesson for Brown and his team. But Brown has to say exactly how important it is to look for other ways to score when threes aren’t falling. And the Knicks need to remember what their identity has been in the recent past and how it has generated points. Striking a balance between what the Knicks have been and what Brown wants to do is probably the best-case scenario for a team that needs more offensive creativity — but that should obviously want to keep its tough persona.