Hollinger: Breaking down two decades of decline in NBA scoring

[Quasar]

Nice article:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ats/index.html

Here's an extract:
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Dissecting the demise
Breaking down two decades of decline in NBA scoring

Whither offense?

Just 20 years ago, the NBA was in the midst of an offensive renaissance that had teams filling the nets like they were on an Alaskan fishing boat. It's difficult to remember now, but in 1984-85, the average NBA team scored 110.8 points per game. Every team in the league scored at least 104, while the Nuggets, Warriors and Kings all averaged more than 117. For a bit of perspective on how far things have sunk, that's a total the world champion Pistons didn't achieve once in the 2003-04 regular season

In fact, last season, scoring plummeted to just 93.4 points a game for each team, a whopping 17.4 point decrease in two decades. The top teams were even more defensive-minded. In the Eastern Conference finals, for instance, Detroit and Indiana played a horrific six-game series in which neither team managed to eclipse 85 points.

The decline in offense is well known. But how did the league get here? While my SI.com colleagues are looking at some of the changes in techniques and at udes that have allowed defense the upper hand, I'll be taking a more scientific approach by breaking down the numbers. The data should provide an explanation for the causes of the 17-point drop, as well as offer some insights into some solutions.

Let's start with the big picture. There are only two ways scoring can decrease: One is for teams to play slower, which reduces the number of possessions each team has over the course of a game; the other is for teams to get fewer points out of each possession.
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[spurster]

Not bad, but he misses one big reason: defenses are better. One more stat I would have liked to see is the difference in fast break points 20 years ago to now. I think the defenses now are tuned to stopping easy fast break points. That alone would help explain fewer possessions per game and lower FG%.