C.J. Miles kind of chuckled when it was suggested that one three-point field-goal attempt per minute — the Toronto Raptors’ fire-’em-up rate in Chicago on Friday night — might not have felt like too many given the team’s easy victory.

“Yeah,” he said, “because they’re good shots.”

Once again taking a desire to be active in firing long-distance shots to the extreme, the Raptors went 19-for-48 from beyond the arc in a 125-104 win over the Bulls to close out the exhibition schedule.

That’s more than they’ve ever taken — 43 had been the benchmark, in the first pre-season game this month in Honolulu — and simply is not sustainable into the regular season.

As much as they want to talk about pace and space and “no open shot is really a bad shot,” taking a three-pointer a minute is an oddity rather than a regularity. Even Miles, the most accomplished wing three-point shooter on the roster, understands that.

“Nobody cares how many you take when you make them, but I think it will definitely change over time and over games,” he said after his 27-point game, including six threes. “There are definitely going to be games where teams deny and not help as much and not get in rotations, and then we’ll have other guys have big games because they are going to get rolls to the basket.

“(Jonas Valanciunas) is going to be big, and (Jakob Poeltl) and (DeMar DeRozan) and Kyle (Lowry). The way they penetrate, they are going to find other routes to get there and change the game. As long as we come into the game playing basketball and not . . . thinking we’re going to shoot threes, then it works.”

Coach Dwane Casey isn’t overly concerned by the volume of three-point shooting because there’s a vast difference between the level of intensity in five pre-season games and in the 82-game regular season, which starts Thursday for the Raptors when they host the Bulls.

Teams will have also scouted this new-look Raptors offence extensively and be wary of the drive-kick-swing action they now prefer.

“It’s quite a few,” he quipped about Friday’s three-point attempts. “Again, if they present themselves we’ve got to take them. We have to make them if we’re going to go with the new millennium, new NBA. We’ve just got to work on making them (and) that will come, I promise you.

“I don’t know if 48’s the number — I’m not going to get married to a number. If you’re open, take them, (but) I want to make them, get with the new age.”

The Raptors averaged 43 three-point attempts in five pre-season games, second to Houston (49). The trouble is they shot just 32.6 per cent (14 makes per game) and that ranked 29th in the 30-team league.

“I’m not getting caught up in this shot, good shot, bad shot,” Casey said. “I think the shots we’re taking are good three-point shots. I don’t think too many are forced.”

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