"We want Carey! We want Carey! "Orlando Magic fans are cheering on an away player.
Kyrie Owen's scoring show at home to the Orlando Magic sparked a roar of cheers from fans. With 60 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals, 20-of-31 shooting, 8-of-12-of-12 three-pointers and 12-of-13 free throws, Irving spent just 35 minutes. Owen's gorgeous performance immersed the audience and made them forget the difference between the home and away teams.
Irving scored 41 points in the first half, a face that the league hadn't seen in almost two decades.
Just a day earlier, Minnesota Timberwolves center Carl Anthony Towns had managed to steal the headlines of the two MVP center showdowns of Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic with 60 points. In terms of scoring efficiency, Towns is not much worse than Irving, and he spent 36 minutes. This is the second time since Wilt Chamberlain in 1962 that the NBA has had two game days with 60 consecutive points. In the other four leagues where this has happened, Chamberlain alone has contributed seven of the eight games.
Fans who often follow the game have probably found that the last 10 days or so of 50 points in a single game are like a carp crossing the river, so many that people are almost numb. LeBron James has not eased up in a week of double slashing 50+, Durant in the early morning Beijing time home game against the New York Knicks in the early morning of Monday time, slashed 53 points, 6 rebounds and 9 assists, and now showed everyone a "back-to-back" 60 points. Since March, the NBA has had seven individual 50+ points per game, with Irving (1 50 and 1 60) and James scoring twice, Jason Tatum (54 points), Durant once each, and Towns once.
The data shows that March saw seven 50+ equals the most since the 1976-77 ABA and NBA mergers, and the month with the most 50+ in history was December 1962 (9). Six of those games were created by Chamberlain and the other three were created by The Lakers' Elgin Baylor.
"It just shows you that we're moving towards history." Owen said.
Stephen Curry scored only 47 points on the day of downs' 60 points, and as long as Curinou strives to do the NBA 50+ times a month, the reason he doesn't score 50 points is simply because the game is decided, and he himself feels enough.
Eagles point guard Trey Young scored 47 and 46 points on March 14 and 15, respectively, and his personal ability to soar points is not much, but the 40+ in a single game will not make much waves at least this season. In the face of the endless 50+ coming out, Trey Young wrote on his social media: "Everyone has a great play, and this alliance is thriving now." ”
What are the reasons behind the NBA's frequent high scores?
First of all, fans who have been watching the game for many years have already felt it — the pace of NBA games today is getting faster and faster. As the pace of the game becomes faster, the number of rounds between the two sides becomes more and more, the players have more opportunities to attack in the game, the overall score of the team has increased, and the team's core players can achieve high scores may be a historical necessity.
In the 2021-22 season, the average score of league teams reached 109.9 points, although it is a new low in the last 4 seasons, if you put the data of recent years as a whole into the history of the NBA, it is not difficult to find that the overall offense of the league is at a historical peak at this stage.
In the league that emphasizes offense, the team scores more than 120 points at every turn, which undoubtedly provides the soil for the core of the ball to "brush big points". With Downs and Irving scoring 60 points in the two games, the Timberwolves have a total of 149 points, the Nets have a total score of 150 points, and the two have a round share of 48.4% and 41.6%, respectively, and individual points account for 40% of the team's total score.
20 years ago or earlier, it was hard to imagine that such a total score would be played in regular time, and that a player would score 60 points in less than 40 minutes. In the case of Michael Jordan, on March 4, 1987, the Bulls beat the Pistons 125-120, and Jordan scored 61 points and played 43 minutes. On April 3, 1988, Jordan scored 59 points in a single game against the Pistons, playing 42 minutes. At that time, the Bulls' total score was only 112 points, and Jordan contributed 52.7% of the team's points, and according to this ratio, players must cut 79 points in a game with a total score of 150 points.
Second, all teams in the league focus on efficiency, shooting more and more three-pointers. To describe the current NBA as efficiency first, no one will feel inappropriate. All teams are using the ball and space, the team's tactical philosophy is to let players play in a more efficient way, and three-point shooting is the offensive way to get the most points in an attack.
According to statistics, in the 2010 season, the paint, middle investment and three points of each team accounted for 41.8%, 20.5%, and 19.1%, and the proportion of 2020 season became 42.8%, 8.5%, and 32.7%.
Such a concept has changed the offensive form of NBA players, and outside projection has become an essential skill for NBA players. Players who don't have to shoot either have to be inside blue-collar workers, or they will play extremely painfully.
The league's 30 teams have averaged an all-time high of 35.2 three-point shots this season, more than last season's 34.7, and none of those who scored high scores couldn't shoot three-pointers. Also, don't say James didn't project anymore. James's shooting number has risen to the first place in the league, and the score has soared, and from the improvement of the power of two and three points, it can also be seen that James is now more inclined to the positioning of the scorer.
Since the beginning of the 2013-14 season, the total number of three-point shots in the league has exceeded 50,000, and the average number of shots per team has exceeded 20 for the first time, and it has increased year by year. Ten years ago, the Magic, the team with the highest average three-pointers per game, had 26.9 shots per game, which is less in the league today than the Bulls at the bottom. The season's championship Dallas Mavericks were called the "jumper brigade," and they averaged 22.1 three-pointers per game to rank fourth in the league.
According to the statistics of the NBA official website, the overall three-point shooting ratio of the whole league has risen to 38.7% so far in the 2021-22 season, setting a new record high in the past 11 seasons. Among them, 14 teams have a three-point shooting rate of more than 40%, which means that after the NBA players pass the half, there is a 40% chance of choosing to shoot outside the three-point line, which will naturally affect the deployment of defensive teams, because the continuous upward rate of peripheral mobile phones has created the ability of everyone on the field to replace the cut with long-range shots, and the coach is more difficult to arrange defense.
As early as the 2010 draft, it is estimated that no one expected Curry to shoot 2974 three-pointers in just 11 years, breaking the record of his predecessor Ray Allen, and the progress was 511 games faster, if calculated by 82 games a year, Curry reached the target six years earlier, and no one is more suitable for interpreting the impact of three-pointers on the game than the Golden State Warriors star.
In 2020, there is still a bit of surprise about center Kevin Loew shooting 7.9 three-pointers per 36 minutes, more than the three-point shooting data of Reggie Miller and Ray Allen in their careers, and by 2022 people have become accustomed to big men shooting outside the three-point line. Jokic, Embiid and Towns are now all three centers in the league with outside shooting ability, and Towns, who has scored 60 points, is the biggest three-point shooter among them.
In the regular season, the overall background of everyone's general acceleration, the defensive intensity has also decreased accordingly. Scoring is somehow more important than defending. There have been 16 50+ games this season, and a total of 12 different players have performed 50+ in a single game. In the 2018-19 season, the league had 13 different players score at least 50 points per game, which is the NBA record. With the end of the regular season still a month away, the record is likely to be tied or broken.
Former NBA player Matt Barnes can't help but ask, "Who's going to be next?" "We can also expect who can contribute more than 60 points in a single game.