During my formative years as an NBA fan, I always loved to see teams score 100 points or more. I also equated that raw total with great offensive basketball. In today's up-tempo and three-point friendly game with per 100 possession stats readily available on demand, all of that sounds a little bit absurd.
In the ongoing NBA Finals, Oklahoma City has what is probably the most celebrated team defense since the 2004 Pistons. The Thunder haven't held the Pacers under 104 points in any game of the championship series so far. The Pacers haven't won a playoff game this season scoring fewer than 111 points.
If both teams hit the century mark in Thursday's Game 6 and the Thunder win, it will be the first time each team has scored 100 points in each game of the NBA Finals since 1995. You probably didn't know that. And to be honest, those total scores don't matter a whole lot for how good the basketball product is.
I came of age as a basketball fan in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which doubled as the slowest and lowest-scoring era of NBA basketball since the shot clock came into existence. This era is anything but. And the last couple years of basketball played in the pros, college, and in FIBA has confirmed to me that the NBA might be a little better if scores came down a bit.
Even until about 16 months ago, I don't think I had that opinion. But when the league let more contact go around the time of the 2024 All-Star Break, I enjoyed the average game a lot more. In fact, I realized that a 98-95 game was often preferable to a 123-120 game due to the balance between offense and defense.
As a fan, younger me wanted points on the board after seeing Finals games where one team scored 54 and playoff games with less than 140 total points scored. Older me wants to see a well-played game with good pace, game flow, and minimal nonsense like foul-baiting and time-sucking reviews that last for minutes.
In my opinion, this year's playoffs have been pretty good. Oklahoma City will most likely win one of the next two games and become a worthy NBA champion as the best team all season. With Jalen Williams rising to the occasion as the series has gone on, the Thunder appear to have the two most consistent scoring threats in the series, and Tyrese Haliburton's calf injury is terrible timing for the Pacers.
Still, Game 4 and the constant trips to the line left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It's not a good look for the league when even casual fans know that Scott Foster's "role" is to extend a playoff series. With more parity likely in the league due to the second apron team salary rule, I think the NBA needs to be more serious about the perception of solely being a TV and entertainment product. After all, the TV money is locked in through the 2036 NBA Finals.
In the past, I've advocated for changing the three-point line in the corners as a way to "fix" the pro game. Since then, I've read some various opinions on that possibility, and — at minimum — I would want it to be tested out in Summer League or the G-League. Now, I just want most levels of basketball to look more like FIBA competitions.
Steph Curry and LeBron James playing in last year's Olympics obviously helped TV ratings, but I don't think you get to the most watched basketball game in eight years when including the NBA Finals and Final Four in the 2024-25 media landscape on star power alone. FIBA games move along at a better clip than NBA or college games, feature minimal foul-baiting, and have a strong balance between offense and defense. And even though the Olympics and World Cup feature a shorter three-point line, it doesn't feel as three-point dependent as the modern NBA. Head coaches, GMs, and star players would probably hate more of a FIBA-esque officiated game, but I feel strongly that fans would enjoy it more.
Something else has stuck in my mind in watching the playoffs that probably isn't a great sign for the state of the NBA. And that's that, for the first time in a good 15 years or so, I think college basketball this year was better than the NBA. Some of that is definitely due to it being a very top-heavy version of March Madness, but I also have that opinion because I knew that the games would have a different rhythm to them than an NBA regular season or playoff game. And even in college ball, I wouldn't mind a bit more FIBA influence.
The NBA is clearly a global game now. Players from six countries and four continents have taken part in this year's Finals, and the last time an American won league MVP was 2018. Making the game look more like international basketball wouldn't just make the game more watchable, it would probably bring fans back, too.
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