In recent seasons, the NBA has been experiencing a scoring phenomenon, especially increased during the current championship, with outstanding numbers such as that of the Slovenian Luka Dončić, with 73 points in a single game and currently with 33.8 per game on average; as well as Giannis Antetokounmpo or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, with 30.7 and 30.4 respectively, the three best scorers this year and the only ones above the 30 barrier. Beyond the players, the teams, as a whole They also score more and are more efficient in front of the board.
The year the NBA was founded (1949-50), American league teams scored 80 points per game. Currently, franchises average 114.5, almost the same as last season (114.7), which represents the highest average scores in the last 50 years. Something like this has not happened since the 1960s, when names like Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Oscar Robertson were synonymous with that massive increase with averages exceeding 117 points per game.
The 2022-23 season was the highest scoring season in history, with 282,127 points in 1,230 games. Looking back, of the 561 games that were recorded in the 1949-50 season, there were 89,806 points. The NBA has expanded its calendar throughout its history to include more teams and games. Until the 1967-68 season, 100,000 points were not exceeded. The 200,000 points were left behind in 1980-81, and since then, only in the lockouts of 1998 and 2011 was the final score below that symbolic figure.
Annotation key names
This season he is experiencing great individual performances that have been among the best. So much so that 6% of the top 100 scores have been found since the beginning of this season alone: two are above 70, and four are 60 or more.
The great individual magical nights of this season, with more than 70 points, have been signed, for the moment, by Luka Dončić and Joel Embiid. The Slovenian, on January 26, when he scored 73 points, and slipped into the top three scorers in a single game. The other, with 70, Embiid – now injured – on January 22.
HISTORIC 73-POINT NIGHT FROM LUKA DONCIC 🤯
🔥 73 PTS
🔥 25/33 FGM (75.8%)
🔥 15/16 FTM
🔥 8 3PMHe becomes the 4th player in NBA history to score 73+ points and the first ever to score 70+ on 75% or higher from the field. pic.twitter.com/Afm9cyJung
—NBA (@NBA) January 27, 2024
By extrapolating these figures to the 100 best individual performances in history, it is proven that there is a scoring phenomenon in recent years. Since 2020, there are many players who are among the best, such as Karl-Anthony Towns, Damian Lillard or Donovan Mitchell. The American league had not experienced a stretch of five such high-scoring years (counting from 2020 and with the five-year period remaining until 2025) since 1960-1965, with Wilt Chamberlain as an undisputed figure. These two periods are the most outstanding both in collective and individual scoring.
The quantity and quality of the triples, keys in this phenomenon
Since the NBA established three-pointers in the 1979-80 season, teams have varied their strategies to use them more and more. The current campaign is the second in which the most triples have been attempted, 35 per game, only behind the 35.2 of the 2021-22 season. It is also the third most prolific in history in success percentage, since the teams score 36.5%. Such a commitment to three-pointers has a direct impact on free throws, a section in which the record for attempts is 38.3 from the 1957-58 season compared to the current 21.9. That is, almost half as many attempts are made than then, although the percentages are similar: 78.3% today compared to 74.6% then.
As for two-point shots, they decreased when the three-point line was created, but since then, more than 40 years ago, attempts are more or less stable. In the current season, 89 are launched on average.
With the end of the competition just around the corner, the collective offensive production figures continue to be among the highest, with our sights set on some of the main scoring wizards who this year have already shown their power in attack by placing themselves among the best in history.
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