Scoring has always been the main attraction in basketball. It is the first stat in the box score and determines who wins and who loses at the end of every contest. For many casual fans, scoring is basketball. Yet, at the game’s highest level, it seems to be getting way too easy.
For instance, Damian Lillard just had one of the greatest individual performances in the history of the NBA – in the history of basketball, and it doesn’t even seem to matter.
Welcome to the modern game.
Lillard put up a practically unfathomable 71 points with six assists and thirteen made threes – the second most threes in a game by a player ever.
Lillard became only the eighth player in league history to eclipse the 70-point mark in a game. It should be a bigger deal than it is, but the media and fans haven’t reacted to it the way you’d expect, and it’s because NBA fans are getting used to this.
Donovan Mitchell scored a ridiculous 71 points this season and had double-digit assists on the same night.
One could argue that Mitchell’s performance shouldn’t take anything away from Damian Lillard and what he accomplished. They could suggest that his scoring explosion deserves all the flowers.
The problem is that his scoring explosion wasn’t even the most memorable in the past 48 hours.
Days before, the Kings and Clippers broke the record for second highest scoring NBA game of all time at 176-175 in favor of Sacramento in double-OT.
This season, the NBA has produced some of the most ‘video game’ like stat lines, with such volume that it almost becomes desensitizing.
The numbing effect is not a recent occurrence either. As the game evolves and scoring becomes a priority for the league as an entertainment draw, it will only get worse.
Gone are the days of sluggish pace, defensive wars of attrition, and games consistently ending with final scores in the 80s. You can just see the changes at the individual level over the past few decades.
Historically, the difference in scoring compared to the 2010s and 2000s is laughable.
For a brief snapshot: in the 1999-00 season, seven players in the league averaged 25+ppg, and one of those players averaged 30ppg. In the 09-10 season, there were 13 players to reach the 25ppg mark, and two players scored 30 nightly.
Compare that to the present day, where 17 players in the NBA average 25+ ppg and seven players average 30 or better in every contest.
This outbreak of world-class scorers has a few causes.
First and foremost, players are getting better.
The shooting ability of players 1-5 is paramount, so much so that traditional roles – especially big men, are being phased out of the league if they can’t adapt. The players space the floor, stretching defenses to their limit. This now allows more opportunities to attack in isolation with minimal help. The leagues scoring stars have developed move-sets to maximize their bucket-getting abilities on the island, and you see the increase in individual dominance.
Secondly, the rule book. The NBA, at its core is a business. The quality of the basketball on display is the product. Fans – the consumers and, more importantly, the customers, don’t want to watch their favorite players not be able to score.
The casual fan doesn’t understand that help defense and physical defense allows teams to gameplan for a star player and give them a shot to win games. The fan doesn’t care. So they get bored.
In turn, the NBA makes it harder for defenses to play defense. They can’t camp in the lane- defensive 3-seconds; they can’t restrict freedom of movement – hand-checking.
NBA players can’t really do much to play defense. So offensive superstars take advantage to, figuratively and literally, run up the score.
The biggest reason for scoring increases is the value of the three ball mathematically.
Beyond spacing, the three-pointer has become the golden child of analytics. Scoring threes at decent efficiency with high volume is a better bet for many teams than a traditional back-to-the-basket, post-up, inside-out offense.
Teams have increased their three-point attempts per game since the first usage in 1979, and they will do nothing but continue to jack up threes.
So what do we have?
Now, we have world-class athletes who can all shoot and focus on their offensive game. We have a sport where the defense is basically left helpless, hands metaphorically tied behind their backs with the shackles of the rulebook – to hope for the best at the end of some possessions or risk sending a star to the free-throw line all night long.
We have the recipe for scoring. We have the recipe for big nights. We have the recipe for a lot of big nights. Unfortunately, and I hope it never gets there, we have the recipe for too many big nights.