Magic Johnson expressed his shock following the fourth-highest individual scoring in an NBA match ever on Jan. 26 when Luka Doncic scored 73 points against the Atlanta Hawks.
“What’s going on in the NBA? The league is on fire with another dominant performance. This time, Luka Doncic! 73 points, wow!,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
Doncic’s scoring came the same night as Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker hit 62 points.
What’s going on in the NBA?! The league is on fire with another dominate performance. This time, Luka Doncic! 73 points, wow! 🤯Congrats to Luka on his amazing 73 point, 10 rebound game tonight, leading his Mavericks to a 148-143 win against the Hawks.👏🏾
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) January 27, 2024
A few days before, Joel Embiid, of the Philadelphia 76ers, dropped 70 points while Minnesota Timberwolves centre Karl-Anthony Towns scored 62 on Jan. 22.
That is four historical basketball shows in barely five days. So, as fans, we should be wondering the same as Johnson: what’s going on in the NBA?
Exceptional individual scorings like this are becoming more and more usual and, as fans, we should question if we want historically high scores to be made regularly.
Wilt Chamberlain holds the record of 100 points in a 1962 game in an era when the three-point basket was five years in the future.
Something that occurs often no longer makes history.
Several factors explain this scoring boom. While some of them are natural, others have been forced.
On one hand, it’s indisputable the nature of the game and its evolution have increased the teams’ and the player’s scores. The fast growth of the three-point shot and the increasing skill set of players have had a decisive impact.
But, on the other hand, the league has changed the rules to make them favour the offence, to the point that the defence is now disadvantaged.
Superstar Stephen Curry said some rules need to be reviewed.
“You can’t be as physical as you want. It’s great for the league in terms of showcasing skills but some stuff has to be corrected,” Curry told the media following the L.A. Lakers-Golden State Warriors game in San Francisco on Jan. 27.
LeBron James also said the rules allow for high individual scoring.
“It’s the way the game is, the way it’s better for fans, the way referees officiate the games for freedom of movement,” James said after the Hawks-Lakers game in Atlanta on Jan. 30.
Several coaches commented on the rules last year in the wake of high scores including the 71-point performance of Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the 60-point game by Doncic.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said the rules benefit offensive players.
“Maybe there’s been an overcorrection to what was happening 20 years ago,” he told the media in Cleveland on Jan. 20, 2023.
“The rules have really been geared towards giving the offensive player the advantage. It’s become much more difficult to play defence in the NBA now,” he said.
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich went further.
“There’s no defence. I don’t like the rules,” he told the media in Toronto on Feb. 8, 2023.
Portland Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said current NBA rules make defence hard.
“You can’t play with physicality to get stops, you have to give way to the players, or you’ll get in trouble getting fouls and giving free throws,” he told the media in Toronto on Jan. 8, 2023.
The NBA should review the rules or risk losing the greatness of the game because when greatness happens often, it’s not greatness anymore.