Over the last several years, the NBA has become a fast-paced, high-scoring league. As opposed to the 1990s and 2000s, when many, if not most, teams averaged under 100 points a game, the average team these days clocks in at over 110 points a game.
Teams look to run and get early offense a lot more than they did some 20 years ago, and although the league has gradually allowed a little more physicality over the last couple of years, the game is still less physical than it was in the 1990s.
There is a difference between today’s NBA and the type of pro basketball played in Europe, where the game is more physical and has slightly different rules. Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic started playing professionally overseas at a young age, and early in his NBA career, he said it is easier to score in the NBA than it is in Europe.
During a recent episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast, he elaborated on that comment.
“But I think in Europe, watching the Euro League now and before, it’s more about the team and teamwork,” Doncic said. “But it’s different rules in the NBA, I’ve always said that. The reason I said it’s easier to score in the NBA is because it’s just different rules. You have a lot more spacing, you have more minutes. It’s eight more minutes, anything can happen in eight minutes. So it’s just because of that. In Europe if you get a big guy, for example like Edy Tavares, he plays in Madrid. He’s just standing in the paint and he can stand in the paint and he’s [7’3″], it’s hard to score on that. It’s impossible. Here, you can’t do that because it’s a three-second violation.”
In Europe, defensive players are allowed to stand in the paint as long as they wish, unlike in the NBA, where rules state they can be in the paint for a maximum of three seconds. That makes it a lot easier for players to protect the rim defensively.
Some have called for the NBA to get rid of its defensive three-second rule. However, eliminating such a rule would not only make it much easier to defend, possibly to the point of greatly lowering scores across the league, but it would go against decades of not allowing players to camp out in the lane.
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