MIAMI — The Knicks certainly haven’t broken any records with their 3-point shooting against the Heat, but they did sound like a broken record amid another team-wide offensive malaise on Saturday.
The Knicks clanked their way to a wayward 2-for-16 display from long distance in the first half, and they went on to finish 8-for-40 overall from beyond the arc in their dreadful 105-86 Game 3 loss to the Heat at Kaseya Center.
“Again, we missed some shots, missed some open ones. Got some good looks,” RJ Barrett said after the game. “But that is in the game of basketball, even when we don’t shoot it well from 3 we should still be able to win games.
“Teams know what you’re going to do at both ends. They know what we’re going to do. Some nights you make them, some nights you don’t.”
The Knicks said similar things after making just 7 of 34 tries (20.6 percent) from deep in their Game 1 defeat before improving to a 40 percent effort (16-for-40) in evening the series in Game 2.
They clanked their first eight 3-point attempts to open Saturday’s game and didn’t make one until slumping Immanuel Quickley finally knocked one down midway through the second quarter.
They were 1-for-11 when he fired in another trey from the right corner to briefly draw the Knicks within 10 points, 49-39, with three minutes remaining before halftime.
Quickley came out of the game limping after appearing to suffer a leg injury tripping over Heat center Bam Adebayo midway through the fourth quarter.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Knicks vs. Heat NBA playoff series
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- Knicks battle but fall in season-ending Game 6 loss to Heat
- Knicks couldn’t survive two minutes without Brunson
- Brunson’s heroic night spoiled by late turnover
The combo guard had posted a .241 shooting percentage on 3-point attempts (7-for-29) through the Knicks’ first seven playoff games against the Cavaliers and the Heat.
The second-team contributor also played a season-low nine minutes in the Knicks’ Game 2 victory Tuesday night at the Garden.
Barrett became the first Knick other than Quickley to sink a trey in the opening minutes of the third. Josh Hart and Barrett swished 3-balls in the third, but the Knicks had missed 24 of 30 by the end of the quarter, including zero makes to that point by Julius Randle (0-for-4) and Jalen Brunson (0-for-3).
The team’s two leading scorers in the regular season finished the game a combined 11-for-35 from the field and 0-for-10 from 3-point range.
“For us, the ball has to go in the hoop, and when it’s not, what are we going to do to impact the game as a team?” Brunson said. “It’s part of the game, missed shots, but everything else, we have to collectively stick together and not really get frustrated.”