IRVINE – It’s only a few steps but it represents a huge leap in Blake Griffin’s game.

As people around the Clippers have hoped over the past three seasons, Griffin seems ready to take his game beyond the 3-point line. Now, it’s on him to take the shots when they present themselves.

“I want to be someone who shoots from there confidently, for sure,” Griffin said after Thursday’s practice at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center. “A lot of us power forwards, our strength is inside or our versatility. You look at the best power forwards, Anthony Davis, LaMarcus (Aldridge), Draymond (Green) … they can all shoot but they can all put the ball on the floor and they can all score inside. I don’t necessarily think falling in love with the 3-point shot is a good idea, but shooting it confidently from there is great.”

Griffin has taken only 87 3-point shots in his last 182 games, hitting 32.2 percent of them. But, as Griffin’s grown more comfortable with his jump shot, he’s definitely drifted further from the rim.

His percentage of field-goal attempts from beyond 16 feet has grown each season, jumping from 22.3 percent in his second season (his first with Chris Paul) to 45.8 percent last year.

“Blake is Blake. We’re going to tell him to shoot it damn near every time he catches it,” Paul said earlier this week. “It’s one of those things I’m sure we’ll see when the games come how comfortable he is with it. But, we’ve had the confidence in him for awhile.”

That confidence should be increasing.

Griffin said he shot more 3’s than he’s ever shot before during the offseason, nearly mirroring his work from the long mid-range.

The upshot to Griffin becoming an effective 3-point shooter is it would help solve some of the Clippers’ spacing problems, a dilemma that comes from playing multiple non-shooters together at the same time. If Griffin can make enough 3-point shots to command defensive respect, the driving lanes would open for Chris Paul, the paint will unclog for DeAndre Jordan and the looks will get a little cleaner for J.J. Redick.

“The further out I can stretch, the more I can help open up the floor,” Griffin said, acknowledging that he’ll have more room to put the ball on the floor and make plays that way if he can hit open 3-point attempts.

If Griffin can convert 3-pointers the way Green did last year (38.8 percent, 100 makes) or Aldridge two years ago (35.2 percent, 37 makes), it would be a massive plus. And if he can’t, Coach Doc Rivers said, he’s still Blake Griffin, a player who does so many other things well.

“I think that’s something we’ll see. He works on his shot,” Rivers said. “It’ll either come or not, and I’m good either way.”

Contact the writer: dwoike@scng.com