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

Rank Team 3PM 3PA Date Result
T-1 Milwaukee Bucks 25 49 4/19/2023 W
138-122
T-1 Cleveland Cavaliers 25 45 5/4/2016 W
123-98
3 Cleveland Cavaliers 24 45 6/9/2017 W
137-116
T-4 Miami Heat 23 43 4/24/2024 W
111-101
T-4 Houston Rockets 23 58 8/24/2020 L
114-117
T-6 Boston Celtics 22 49 4/21/2024 W
114-94
T-6 Boston Celtics 22 55 5/15/2022 W
109-81
T-6 Dallas Mavericks 22 47 4/18/2022 W
110-104
T-6 Milwaukee Bucks 22 53 5/24/2021 W
132-98
T-6 Houston Rockets 22 53 9/6/2020 L
109-117
T-6 L.A. Clippers 22 35 8/25/2020 W
154-111
T-6 Toronto Raptors 22 47 8/23/2020 W
150-122
T-6 Denver Nuggets 22 41 8/17/2020 W
135-125
T-6 Toronto Raptors 22 44 8/17/2020 W
134-110
T-6 Houston Rockets 22 50 5/1/2017 W
126-99
T-16 Golden State Warriors 21 42 5/4/2023 W
127-100
T-16 Golden State Warriors 21 53 5/2/2023 L
112-117
T-16 Boston Celtics 21 48 4/21/2023 L
122-130
T-16 Philadelphia 76ers 21 43 4/15/2023 W
121-101
T-16 Boston Celtics 21 41 6/2/2022 W
120-108
T-16 Dallas Mavericks 21 45 5/20/2022 L
117-126
T-16 Utah Jazz 21 44 6/18/2021 L
119-131
T-16 Brooklyn Nets 21 42 6/7/2021 W
125-86
T-16 Portland Trail Blazers 21 48 6/1/2021 L
140-147
T-16 Cleveland Cavaliers 21 44 4/20/2017 W
119-114
T-16 Golden State Warriors 21 45 5/28/2016 W
108-101
T-16 Cleveland Cavaliers 21 39 5/6/2016 W
121-108
T-16 Golden State Warriors 21 40 4/24/2016 W
121-94

C Jackson Cowart

C Jackson Cowart Photo

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.