Which team hit the most 3-pointers in a playoff game in NBA history?

C Jackson Cowart

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Which team hit the most 3-pointers in a playoff game in NBA history? image

In the modern NBA, all it takes is a hot night from 3-point range to pull off a monumental upset.

We saw that on full display on Wednesday, when the Miami Heat hit a franchise-record 23 threes to stun the Boston Celtics with a 111-101 win in Game 2 of their first-round series in the 2024 NBA playoffs.

The aptly named Heat were sizzling from deep to silence the crowd at TD Garden, hitting 53.5% of their shots from long range with five different players - led by Tyler Herro (24 points, 6-of-11 from three) - delivering at least three buckets from beyond the arc:

Miami shattered its previous franchise record of 20 made 3-pointers in a playoff game, which came three days after the Celtics tied their own playoff franchise best with 22 threes in Game 1.

Both of those efforts rank among the 10 best postseason performances by a team from deep, though neither takes the top spot.

Where does Game 2 rank among most 3-pointers in NBA playoff game?

Ironically, the Heat were on the other end of the most prolific shooting display in NBA playoff history.

That came almost exactly a year ago, when the Milwaukee Bucks hit 25 shots from 3-point range to win Game 2 of their opening-round series in the 2023 NBA playoffs.

That tied the previous record set by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who also knocked down 25 threes against the Atlanta Hawks in the second round in 2016.

A year later, those Cavaliers drilled 24 threes against the Golden State Warriors in the 2017 NBA Finals, which remains the record for the most triples in an NBA Finals game.

Miami's torrid shooting display on Wednesday ranks behind those three, tied for fourth with the Houston Rockets' 23 threes against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the 2020 "bubble" playoffs.

Boston's 22 threes on Sunday check in just outside the top five all-time, tied with nine other teams for the sixth spot - including the 2022 Celtics, who buried Milwaukee with a barrage of long-range missiles in Game 7 that year.

Incredibly, the Bucks also own the regular-season record with 29 made 3-pointers in a game on Dec. 29, 2020. Their opponent that night, fittingly, was also the Heat, who couldn't keep pace in a 144-97 loss.

Most 3-pointers in a playoff game in NBA history

RankTeam3PM3PADateResult
T-1Milwaukee Bucks25494/19/2023W
138-122
T-1Cleveland Cavaliers25455/4/2016W
123-98
3Cleveland Cavaliers24456/9/2017W
137-116
T-4Miami Heat23434/24/2024W
111-101
T-4Houston Rockets23588/24/2020L
114-117
T-6Boston Celtics22494/21/2024W
114-94
T-6Boston Celtics22555/15/2022W
109-81
T-6Dallas Mavericks22474/18/2022W
110-104
T-6Milwaukee Bucks22535/24/2021W
132-98
T-6Houston Rockets22539/6/2020L
109-117
T-6L.A. Clippers22358/25/2020W
154-111
T-6Toronto Raptors22478/23/2020W
150-122
T-6Denver Nuggets22418/17/2020W
135-125
T-6Toronto Raptors22448/17/2020W
134-110
T-6Houston Rockets22505/1/2017W
126-99
T-16Golden State Warriors21425/4/2023W
127-100
T-16Golden State Warriors21535/2/2023L
112-117
T-16Boston Celtics21484/21/2023L
122-130
T-16Philadelphia 76ers21434/15/2023W
121-101
T-16Boston Celtics21416/2/2022W
120-108
T-16Dallas Mavericks21455/20/2022L
117-126
T-16Utah Jazz21446/18/2021L
119-131
T-16Brooklyn Nets21426/7/2021W
125-86
T-16Portland Trail Blazers21486/1/2021L
140-147
T-16Cleveland Cavaliers21444/20/2017W
119-114
T-16Golden State Warriors21455/28/2016W
108-101
T-16Cleveland Cavaliers21395/6/2016W
121-108
T-16Golden State Warriors21404/24/2016W
121-94

C Jackson Cowart

C Jackson Cowart is an award-winning sportswriter, reporter and editor with nearly a decade of experience in the industry. In addition to his work with The Sporting News, he has also worked with theScore, Action Network, Forbes, ESPN and Sportsbook Review, covering anything from the NFL, NBA and MLB to college sports, WNBA and NASCAR. He's also a fiercely proud Oregon native and UNC alumnus who loves sports cards and high-stakes fantasy leagues as much as he hates Duke.