Scoreboard overload in the NBA ... again
And again and again and again and again on Wednesday night with five teams scoring at least 140 points on the same night for the first time in league history
Do you like high-scoring NBA games?
Do you have a choice in today’s NBA?
Atlanta Hawks 141, Oklahoma City Thunder 138.
Cleveland Cavaliers 140, Washington Wizards 101.
Indiana Pacers 142, Milwaukee Bucks 130.
Utah Jazz 154, Detroit Pistons 148 (OT).
Those were all scores from Wednesday night’s NBA slate. Five teams scored at least 140 points on the same evening.
Which was an NBA first.
It was also the first night in league history that 10 teams scored at least 130 points.
By contrast: Starting as recently as 2010-11 and for the next five seasons through 2015-16 — covering LeBron James’ entire stay with the Miami Heatles and extending to the final two seasons of Kevin Durant’s run in Oklahoma City — none of those six seasons featured more than five 140-point eruptions. Total.
We are not yet halfway through the 2023-24 campaign and have already witnessed 37 teams, according to Basketball Reference data, score at least 140 points in a single game.
The single-season NBA record of 52 140-point games, also via Basketball Reference, was achieved last season.
Next in line: 2018-19 with 45 teams uncorking at least 140 points in a single game and 1969-70 with 43 such instances. This has been the NBA’s new reality since a stunning jump from 13 140-point games in 2017-18 to those 45 that were rung up the following season.
Not-so-bold prediction from our 2024 crystal ball: It will definitely happen at least 16 more times between Thursday’s two-game schedule (Bucks at Spurs; Nuggets at Warriors) and the April 14 close of the regular season to make new NBA history.
It almost happened one more time Tuesday night after we had this story pretty much ready to publish when Sacramento and Orlando went to double overtime to settle Kings 138, Magic 135.
So, yeah.
Bank on it to keep happening in today’s defensively challenged NBA.
You’ll recall that you only have to rewind as far back as Christmas for Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr’s loud lament that the league is "legislating the defense out of the game." Also: Remember last season when we wrote multiple stories about how NBA free-throw shooting had never been better? Last season was the first in league history that the cumulative success rate from the free-throw line crossed the 78% threshold and it has gone up again this season to 78.6%.
With teams leaguewide likewise making nearly 13 3-pointers per game — 12.8 per game is the current league average and, yes, on course to set a new record — it’s little wonder that those extra few points are helping teams are average more offense this season (115.5 points per game) than we’ve seen since the 1969-70 campaign (116.7) when the league had only 14 teams.
PS — Read about all 30 teams in Tuesday’s maiden helping of NBA Power Rankings in 2024:
It's an NBA Power Rankings Tuesday!
The Oklahoma City Thunder have conclusively established themselves as one of the top five teams in today’s NBA. The second-youngest team in the league (only San Antonio was younger than OKC on Opening Night) is right there with the East-leading Boston Celtics, in fact, on this maiden Power Rankings Tuesday of 2024.
I commented on this on Tom Ziller’s Substack, which I’ll replicate here: IMHO, it’s too easy to score these days, and that cheapens the value of a bucket. We don’t want to go back to the mud wrestling days, but I agree with some other comments that we need to give defense a chance. One easy fix would be to eliminate the corner three by keeping the distance at a uniform 23 feet 9 inches and having the line stop once it reaches the sideline. Also, as some analyst (I don’t recall who) suggested some time ago, make all shooting fouls two shot fouls, since the value of a three point attempt is roughly 50% less than that of the average two point attempt. That would eliminate gifting three points to a player who flings the ball up in order to hunt a foul though the shot would have little chance of going in.
Agree that the scores have been ridiculous lately. Maybe it’s time to consider shortening the games? Do we need to 48 minutes of action just to see teams run themselves ragged getting to 140+ points?
I know the league is cracking down on resting of healthy players. Some have suggested a shorter season to deal with that problem, but that has a ripple effect with ticket sales and TV. Maybe a shorter game is a better approach. Thinking out loud.