The NBA at the break: Points 'R' Us

A cascade of 3-pointers has made defense seem nearly impossible.

Luka Doncic

Every night in today’s NBA is like an All-Star Game, in its disdain for defense and its lust for points. On Sunday in Indianapolis, they’ll finally play one that’s reserved for stars.

Through the years, the All-Star Game was a haven for those All-Stars who had been treated like a blocking sled for the first half of the season. “Social distancing” was invented during All-Star Games. And why not? It was never the place to work on the ball-you-man concept of defense, or the 1-3-1 trap. It was the place, in the 90s, where the best players stood back and let each other score at will against air, and sometimes Air.

If you mix in a few dozen players who won’t ever see an All-Star Game without a ticket, that’s sort of what we have on a nightly basis. Depending on how many of the true stars feel like playing on a given night, you’re always in danger of seeing a 150-pointer.

Pick a random evening. On Jan. 30 there were five games, and six of the 10 teams shot over 50 percent from the field. Four of them hit 14 or more 3-point shots. All of them scored over 100, of course, and Atlanta beat the Lakers 138-129 as Michael Cooper bit several holes in his tongue.

This is not necessarily a complaint. Those who tried to sit through the 2010 Finals, in which the Lakers and Celtics failed to score 100 points in a game after Game 2 and thus risked disownment from Jerry West and John Havlicek, are somewhat stimulated by the cheap thrills of 2024.

But there’s always a concern about balance, especially in a sport where trends are so powerful. And, barring the kind of draconian rules change that the NBA is reluctant to order, there’s no stopping the deluge.

This season, teams are averaging 115.5 points a game and shooting 47.6 percent from the field. They are also shooting 36.7 from the 3-point line, and averaging 35 long attempts per game. The Celtics have the best record at the All-Star break. Their average shot is a 15-footer, and 47.3 percent of their shots are 3-pointers.

Last season, teams averaged 114.7 points, shot .475 overall and .361 from three, and the league’s lowest scoring team scored 109.2. They also took 34.2 three per game.

Now, jump back to 2019. Teams averaged 111.2 points. They shot 46.1 overall, 35.5 from three. The least potent team averaged 103.5.

Leap 10 more years into the past. In 2009, teams averaged 100 points. Seventeen of them scored fewer than that. They shot 45.9 percent overall and 36.7 from three — but they took only 18.1 threes per game, barely half as many as today. And the highest-scoring team was at 109.9 points, which would be near the bottom of the ledger today.

Is this the highest-scoring year in history? Not close. In 1962, NBA teams averaged 118.8 points, and there was no 3-point line. But defense was a primitive concept back then — I got this guy, you got that guy — and the clubs played fast. That season, teams put up 18 more field goal attempts, per game, than this year’s scoreboard-busters do.

You can point in several directions, but it all comes back to the three. Ed Steitz’s brainchild, which was an emergency measure in the ABA, infiltrated the college game in 1987 and came to the NBA in the fall of 1989. It is every bit as revolutionary as the 24-second shot clock was. It has transformed every level of the game and pretty much accomplished what Steitz wanted, which was the restoration of the art of shooting.

There are 49 players in the NBA this year who are shooting 40 percent from the arc. Since you theoretically only have to shoot 33 percent to make it worth your while, that’s impressive. In 2009, there were 36 players who shot 40 from there. The difference, of course, is volume. Rashard Lewis led the league that year in 3-point tries, with seven. Twenty-one players in today’s NBA launch more drones than that, with Steph Curry the leader, at 12.

Behind Curry is Luka Doncic, whose 34.1-point scoring average leads the league. Doncic shot 8.2 threes last year, 10.3 this year. They’re all devoting their off-seasons to stretching their range, finding new spots in which to thrive, and creating more space with their firepower. That makes it easier to operate in the middle of the court, and the nylon keeps taking a beating.

Since the points are so plentiful, the old longing for balanced scoring has gone the way of Red On Roundball. No hot hand is allowed to cool. Already this year Joel Embiid has three 50-point games, Doncic has a 50 and a 73, Devin Booker at 50 and 56, and ten players overall have gotten half a hundred at a single setting. Again, that’s the type of splash that promotes the game, as long as it doesn’t get too commonplace.

The specialist is no longer in the NBA, unless he has a special knack for shooting. And the days of the  point guard who can’t or won’t shoot can be found on DVDs. They don’t exist anymore. In fact, the point guard itself, as defined by the guy who brings the ball downcourt and directs the action like Leonard Bernstein, is pretty much gone. Nikola Jokic handles all that for Denver, as often as not, and he’s a 7-footer. Sure, there’s only one Jokic, but that’s the point. There’s only one Giannis or Doncic or Embiid or Tatum, and whether they take over a game or not is usually up to them, not the defense.

You will hear players, coaches and broadcasters lament the fact that the officials are handcuffed teams who are willing to defend. You will hear that nobody is allowed to lay hands on an opponent. Don’t believe everything you hear.  This season, teams are averaging 19.4 fouls per game. That’s the second-lowest figure in NBA annals, compared to 19.3 in the 2021 season. In the high-rolling season of 1962, the refs slapped each team with an average of 23.9 fouls.

What should be done? Pushing back the 3-point line would just be a Band-Aid that falls off after a shower or two. Messing with the shot clock would be too radical, although a 20-second clock would at least make the offense rush its decisions. No, the NBA rests on the power of its stars the way no other league ever has. That’s why ESPN, in its promotions, will flash “Giannis vs. Curry” before “Bucks vs. Warriors.” In the current game, a 20-point lead is just a butterfly, and quick ball movement, with 5-man-touch possessions, is more prized than ever.

The NBA game isn’t exactly working these days. It’s not exactly broken either. Don’t fix it, but feel free to challenge.