All-Star Game Deflects Focus on Low Scores

Ah, the All-Star game. Nothing like a good 140-138 shootout to make us all forget, at least temporarily, about the NBA’s nagging quality issue.

Scoring is down considerably; attendance is off almost 2 percent; the bad teams are really, really bad; and the Chicago Bulls seem to be so above and beyond everyone else that a record-breaking 73 victories isn’t out of the question.

Over the weekend, as the league’s power structure and the greatest players in its history gathered for the All-Star game today in Cleveland, there has been aslight identity crisis behind the scenes.

The NBA competition committee met to try to figure out why the quality of the game is slipping and what can be done to correct the problem.

There was talk about the state of the game, and within that context, the lower scoring was addressed, according to Rod Thorn, the NBA’s vice president of operations.

Today’s game tips off at 3:38 p.m., and most of the usual All-Stars will be back.

Michael Jordan, Penny Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning, Grant Hill and Scottie Pippen will start for the East. Karl Malone, Shawn Kemp, Hakeem Olajuwon, Gary Payton and John Stockton will start for the West.

Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler and Patrick Ewing will sit out because of injuries.

It should be a run-and-gun game. The locals should get a big kick out of that, since it’ll be the only one of its kind this season at Gund Arena, home to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the coach, Mike Fratello, who has become the trendsetter for the philosophy of keeping the score in the mid-80s or lower.

Teams are scoring just 95.6 points per game--a 14-point drop from 10 years ago. Shooting percentages have dropped to 45%, players have stopped driving to the basket and defenses don’t allow many fast breaks.

In November, it was almost routine to have a game each night in which one of the teams finished with a point total in the high 60s or low 70s.

The scoring pace picked up in December and January, but the leaguewide average remains well short of levels seen just four or five seasons ago.

The dropoff has been constant as more teams have adopted the approach of the Cavs--milking the 24-second clock, playing a modified zone defense, trying to keep the games close in an effort to win with inferior talent.

“The league has lost a lot of offensive-minded coaches in recent years--Paul Westphal, Doug Moe, Don Nelson, Paul Westhead,” said Steve Kerr of the Chicago Bulls. “A lot of them were innovators that played uptempo games that people copied.

“Back then there was a definite contrast between teams. Some nights you’d play 130-120 games, and then the next night you’d go against a defense-oriented team and have a low-scoring game. Now the influence is coming from Pat Riley and Mike Fratello, and there’s a lot less variety now.”

One NBA scout said that all the clubs except the Bulls and Seattle run basically the same offense.

“They use the high pick-and roll, they dump the ball into the center, wait for the double-team and try to find an open 3-point shooter or they hold the ball outside until their designated shooter can come around enough picks to get an open jump shot,” he said. “With everyone doing the same thing, everyone has figured out how to keep the game under control. Hence, scoring is down.”

Many coaches, players and general managers think the easiest solution would be to move the 3-point line back from 22 feet to its original distance of 23 feet, 9 inches.

“The 3-point line was beautiful the way it was, but now you’ve got everybody shooting them and it just doesn’t seem special anymore,” Phoenix Suns coach Danny Ainge said.

“It was dumb to move it the first time, but (moving it back) would mean the league admitting that they made a mistake,” Ainge added, explaining why he doesn’t expect to see such a change being made.

Other possible remedies the competition committee will consider include shortening the 24-second clock, calling more fouls, changing illegal defense rules, forbidding double-teams in the post when a player is not dribbling and expanding the zone around the basket where charging fouls cannot be called.

No changes are expected to be implemented until next season.

Thorn says the problem boils down to a dropoff in shots.

“If your objective is to try to create more points, I don’t think the 3-point line means anything one way or another. I’ve been given 25 reasons why scoring is down, and the bottom line is, unless we shoot the ball more, scores aren’t going back up.

“The only thing you can do is force teams to shoot the ball more and make coaches know it’s in their best interest to shoot it more.”

Although the NBA hates to acknowledge it, some of the drop in scoring can be attributed to expansion and the dilution of talent it has brought about.

Twenty years ago, teams had 10 good players. Ten years ago, teams had at least seven. Now, the players are spread thinner because six new franchises have been added to the league since 1988.

Seattle coach George Karl describes it as a “thinness.”

“My big theory is so many teams in this league are trying to play players above what they are,” Karl said. “They’re trying to play good players as All-Star players, All-Star players as superstars, role players as 30-minute players.

“If you want to change it, you’d have to sell nine teams, put their players in free agency and give them to the other teams. If you get more talented players, the teams will be more high-scoring.”