This Was Not Supposed To Happen…

Last night Kyrie exploded for 60 points, and so far just in March we have 7 games of 50 or more points. The last month with more 50 point games happened in 1962 when basketball wasn’t nearly as organized and high level as it is today, and this is how it looked.
With how badly things started off this season, nobody expected that we would have a total of 16 games with 50 plus points.
Can you remember why? Let me remind you. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
Before I dive into the real issue, this is the list with all the 50 piece chicken nuggets from every player so far until last night.
These 16 explosions are the third most in a season over the last 22 years,
so basically since the start of the new millennium. And the season isn’t over yet, so it’s very likely that we’ll see a few more by the end.
This is very intriguing because NBA teams started off with a bad shooting slump overall, and it kind of still seems to be that way. Specifically from the three point line.
If we compare the percentages year by year, you see that even with all the top level talent, and even with shooters being better prepared than ever, and records being broken, the average percentage for the league as a whole is the lowest that it has been in the last 7 years.
Part of this is just random, but a huge reason definitely has to be the new Wilson basketballs, that are replacing the legendary Spalding balls.
NBA players actually predicted that there would be a drop of efficiency, and many complained about it at the start.
Just for comparison, there was an article after the first three weeks of the season, and the average 3 point percentage throughout the league was only 34.2, whereas in a similar sample size after the all star break, we got a much higher 35.9%.
And for those of you that are not really into numbers an increase of 1.7% may not sound like a lot but on that many shots over that many games, the difference is more than 180 made threes or 540 more points scored. And that’s just for a 1 month portion. Imagine the difference it makes over a full season.
Now whether the players really adjusted to the new basketballs or if all of this is random, it’s obvious that the criticism has definitely died down a bit and we won’t have another controversial situation like in 2006 when the NBA and Spalding introduced a new ball with a different material. The players kept an open mind and started the season with it but the backlash was so bad that the league switched back to the original leather basketballs just 2 months later.
But to wrap things up, as the players get into a groove, and really sharpen up in the final stretch, when the games really matter, I can only see the numbers and the efficiency going up, so be on the lookout for more individual scoring bursts.
Let me know in the comments how many more 50s do you expect. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.