There could be only one response, from the perspective of Milwaukee Bucks Coach Mike Budenholzer, to the historically futile shooting night Brook Lopez recently endured.

After Lopez set an unwanted league record for most 3-point attempts in a game without a make, shooting 0 for 12 on threes in a loss to the Phoenix Suns, Budenholzer drew up Milwaukee’s first play of the next game just for his unlikely long-range specialist.

He added a Lopez-specific wrinkle to one of the Bucks’ most trusted sets, calling for what is known as a “sleeper” action to free him at the top of the floor after an entry pass to the Milwaukee superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. Budenholzer happily watched the play unfold with Lopez swishing his attempt from beyond the arc — good for the first of 15 3s for the Bucks, out of 40 tries, in a 135-129 victory over the San Antonio Spurs and Budenholzer’s coaching mentor Gregg Popovich.

“I’m not Mr. Tricky or anything,” Budenholzer said this week in an interview. “But it made sense.”

In the modern N.B.A., starting a game with a play expressly designed to reaffirm the team’s confidence in its 7-foot roving marksman indeed makes total sense. Teams are averaging 31.3 3-point attempts per game leaguewide — which will establish a new single-season record if the pace holds — and Lopez has become a symbol of the newfound freedom to fire away that even former back-to-the-basket centers are granted in this pace-and-space era.