The Houston Rockets have a penchant for three-point shooting. While their chief foes in the Western Conference (the Golden State Warriors) feature two of the best shooters in NBA history, it was the Rockets that made league history in 2016-2017 by averaging 14.4 three-pointers per game. Houston has never been shy under the leadership of Mike D’Antoni when it comes to hoisting from beyond the arc.
On Monday evening, however, the Rockets joined with the Brooklyn Nets to make league history and, in a perfect twist, the two teams broke a record held… by the Rockets and the Nets.
The Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets have broken the NBA record for 3-pt field goal attempts with 89. The record was previously set by the two teams last season.
— Anthony Puccio (@APOOCH) November 28, 2017
Houston and Brooklyn attempted 88 three-pointers on Jan. 16, 2017. This time around, 89 attempts came flying from long distance. James Harden was predictably the leader on either side with 13 attempts and he put together an MVP-worthy performance with 37 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists to lead the Rockets to a 117-103 victory. The victors tossed up 50 (!) three-point attempts, making 20 of them, and Brooklyn did their part in getting 39 shots up at the rim.
Amusingly, the final game total of 220 combined was not even enough to eclipse the Las Vegas over/under total of 225.5 points and, when seen through the prism of long-distance shooting history, that is wild to consider. Still, these are two teams that play at a lightning-quick pace and, even with Brooklyn’s well-documented struggles in the absence of D’Angelo Russell and Jeremy Lin, Kenny Atkinson’s team plays an entertaining brand of basketball on the offensive end.
In the future, there will be an NBA game that features 90-plus three-point attempts and, judging on recent history, it might feature the Rockets and Nets squaring off on the same floor.
