NBA Isn't Worried About Low Scoring

NEW YORK (AP) â€” The basket isn't any smaller and the ball isn't any bigger. <br><br>So, why can't these NBA guys shoot? <br><br>``Neither team could throw a pea in the ocean,'' Charlotte

Friday, December 22nd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” The basket isn't any smaller and the ball isn't any bigger.

So, why can't these NBA guys shoot?

``Neither team could throw a pea in the ocean,'' Charlotte guard Baron Davis said after the Hornets and the Miami Heat flirted with a record for futility.

The teams combined for just 121 points Wednesday night, two more than Boston and Milwaukee scored between them on Feb. 27, 1955. That's the record since the league went to a 24-second shot clock for the 1954-55 season.

Last week, the New York Knicks scored a franchise-low 58 points in a loss to Utah.

The NBA said it wasn't worried about declining point totals. Executive vice president Stu Jackson says scoring is down by only four points per game from the end of last season â€” hardly a nightly exhibition of airballs â€” in a league where teams combine for an average of 186.1 points.

``Typically, scoring does increase as the year progresses, so I would expect that gap to narrow,'' he said.

In the game at Charlotte, in which Miami recorded the fourth-lowest total since the inception of the clock, both teams were far below the league average for field- goal percentage.

And the game may have been further evidence that defense has become the staple of the league. Seven of the eight lowest-output games have come since 1992.

Jackson says good defense is more responsible than bad shooting. The league is shooting .437 percent this season after finishing the last at .449.

On Wednesday night, Charlotte shot .371. Miami was even more dreadful at .292. The record high percentage is .545 by the 1984-85 Los Angeles Lakers.

``It can be argued that the players are quicker and stronger, and that there is an increased focus on defensive play,'' Jackson said, calling it a major change from the period between 1983-96, when the league scoring average was about 220.4 points per game. ``I think the focus has changed.''

But has it changed for the better? That depends on whether you like offense or defense.

Miami coach Pat Riley, who coached the uptempo Lakers of Magic Johnson and then concentrated more on defense with the New York Knicks and later the Heat, certainly saw it both ways Wednesday night.

``It was probably one of the ugliest games of the year,'' he said. ``The defense was outstanding for both teams, but it wasn't pretty.''

Prior to the shot clock, the lesser teams often stalled against the better ones. On Nov. 22, 1950, the Fort Wayne Pistons slowed the game against the defending champion Minneapolis Lakers and won 19-18.

The movement toward a shot clock gained even more momentum later that season, when the Indianapolis Olympians beat the Rochester Royals 75-73 in six overtimes. Both teams held the ball after the opening tap of each extra period, hoping to make a decisive shot in the last few seconds.

The immediate result of the shot clock was an increase of 13.6 points per game to 186.1 â€” precisely where it stands today. The upward spiral continued almost unabated until the mid '80s. The league scoring average in 1985-86 was 220.4 and the field goal percentage was .487.

The highest-scoring game this season came on Dec. 6, when Golden State beat the Lakers 125-122 in overtime.

Jackson doesn't know what the future holds, although he believes the current crop of players could continue to be good enough defensively to hold down the numbers.

``I do think that overall the teams are more athletic,'' he said. ``Certainly speed quickness and strength will help you be a better defensive player.''

Will this turn off the fans?

Attendance is down 1 percent this season, to an average of 16,090. Still, any change in the style of play will be examined.

``I don't know that we're unhappier because there is still some great basketball still being played,'' Jackson said. ``But it behooves us to keep evaluating our game.''

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