Duncan Robinson at the center of Heat’s three-point shooting surge in first week of playoffs

This regular season didn’t go the way Duncan Robinson hoped for, but the playoffs are beginning better than he could have envisioned.

After spending most of the regular season either on the fringes or completely out of the Heat’s rotation and also missing 20 straight games from early January to mid-February because of finger surgery, Robinson has been pushed into a bigger role this postseason in the wake of Tyler Herro’s injury and he’s thriving so far.

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Through the first week of the playoffs, Robinson has been the most efficient three-point shooter in the NBA and has made a team-high 10 threes. Among the 105 players around the league who entered Sunday with more than five three-point attempts in this year’s playoffs, Robinson has shot an NBA-best 10 of 13 (76.9 percent) from three-point range in the Heat’s first three playoff games.

Robinson was one of the stars in the eighth-seeded Heat’s 121-99 blowout Game 3 win over the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night at Kaseya Center. He totaled 20 points with the help of 5-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc on his 29th birthday old to help lift the Heat to a 2-1 series lead.

“This season has been a tumultuous one,” Robinson said, with the Heat looking to take full control of the series in Game 4 on Monday in Miami (7:30 p.m., TNT and Bally Sports Sun). “Some ups and downs just personally and as a group, as well. And that’s the beautiful thing about this time of the year, you just got to commit everything you can to try to help us win.

“So at this point, I just feel like I’ve been – maybe you guys haven’t seen it – but I feel like I’ve been working to really just stay ready for these moments and do whatever I can day to day to just control my habits, control what I can control. And then when I do have opportunities, just put my best foot forward and try to make the most of them.”

With Herro breaking his right hand in Game 1, Robinson logged 26 minutes in a starting role in Game 2 and 24 minutes in a bench role in Game 3. Since the start of 2023, these two games marked only the fourth and fifth time that he has played 24 or more minutes in a game.

It’s not just the additional playing time, more three-point shots are also going in for Robinson in the playoffs than the regular season. He shot 32.8 percent from three-point range this regular season, which is his lowest single-season three-point percentage since his rookie year in 2018-19.

But Robinson has proven to be one of the NBA’s top three-point shooters when he’s given consistent playing time. He became the new franchise leader for the most career three-pointers made by a Heat player earlier this season.

“Our staff and team is yelling at me on the shots I don’t shoot,” Robinson said. “So that’s a pretty freeing place to be between the ears, just knowing you got to go out there and fulfill your job to the best of your ability.”

Robinson’s skill set is needed against a Bucks team that is among the best at defending the three-point line. Milwaukee’s opponents took just 33.7 percent of their shots from three-point range (fifth-lowest percentage in the NBA) in the regular season, according to Cleaning the Glass.

“They’re a good defense, so they take some stuff away,” Robinson continued. “They’re going to take the easy ones away, but you just got to be persistent to find openings.”

Despite the Bucks’ elite defense that ended the regular season as a top-five unit, the Heat’s offense — behind its three-point shooting surge — has been the best in the NBA through the first week of the playoffs.

The Heat, which finished the regular season with the 25th-ranked offensive rating with 112.3 points scored per 100 possessions, has posted the league’s best offensive rating in the playoffs with 123.5 points scored per 100 possessions.

The Heat, which finished the regular season with the NBA’s fourth-worst three-point percentage at 34.4 percent, has shot a league-best 47 of 94 (50 percent) from beyond the arc in the playoffs.

The Heat, which finished the regular season with the NBA’s sixth-worst effective field-goal percentage at 53 percent, has a league-best effective field-goal percentage of 64.9 percent in the playoffs. Effective field-goal percentage takes into account that three-point shots are worth more than two-pointers.

“We’ve been one of the three-point shooting teams since the All-Star break and a lot of guys have been contributing to that and we’re getting them in a lot of different ways,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So I hope everybody just starts continuing to use the November, December scouting report.”

After spending most of the season watching important moments from the Heat’s bench, Robinson finds himself at the center of the Heat’s hot shooting start to the playoffs. He’s in the second season of a five-year, $90 million contract he signed with the Heat in the 2021 offseason.

“It’s a challenge, man,” Robinson said of staying ready for his playoff opportunity. “But for me, that’s some of the most rewarding stuff. Having those stretches where you’re just kind of pushing through in the mud, feeling like nothing is clicking or coming together. And a lot of times that can formulate into nights like these. People kind of think it came out of nowhere. But I like to think that I’ve been just kind of slowly grinding, working to piece together a moment like this.”