Inside the NBA numbers: A look at the season’s stats

Scoring was up in the NBA this season, to a level not seen inmore than a half-century.

NBA teams averaged 114.7 points per game. That’s theninth-highest figure in the league’s 77 seasons and the most sinceteams averaged 116.7 per game in 1969-70.

It represents a jump of 3.7% over last season.

A record 282,127 points were scored this season, smashing theprevious mark of 273,573 set in 2018-19.

FREE THROW RECORD

The NBA has never had a better season from the foul line.Again.

The league-wide record for accuracy will fall for the third timein the last four seasons. Teams have combined to shoot 78.2% fromthe line this season.

That topped the 77.8% mark from two seasons ago. And while thatdifference — a mere 0.4% — doesn’t look like much, it is. NBA teamscould have combined to miss their first 200 free throws on Sundaywhen the regular season was ending and still have been on pace toset a season record.

A BOSTON FIRST

When you’ve done something that’s never been done before inBoston Celtics history, that’s impressive.

So, take a bow, Jayson Tatum.

The forward averaged 30.1 points per game this season — the mostever by a Celtics player. John Havlicek and Isaiah Thomas eachaveraged 28.9 in their best seasons in Boston, and Larry Birdaveraged 29.9 in 1987-88, but Tatum is the first to average 30.

Bird technically averaged 29.93 points that season, and two morepoints would have given him 29.95, which many would have rounded upto 30.0. He was five points shy that season of averaging exactly 30per game.

BRIDGES’ STREAK

Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges technically missed a game this season,but his consecutive games-played streak — now 392 games andcounting — lives on because he wasn’t eligible to play while theNets were completing the process of acquiring him in a trade withthe Phoenix Suns.

Regardless, he still played in a league-best 83 games thisseason. It’s quirky, since a season is 82 games, but the Nets hadmore games to play than the Suns did when the trade happened. Andit lived on in Sunday’s season finale because Bridges appeared forthe first 4 seconds to extend the streak, then checked out for theday.

Bridges didn’t miss a game at Villanova, either. His last missedgame was in high school.

Bridges is the first player to appear in 83 games in a seasonsince Josh Smith in 2014-15. Bridges was one of 10 players to notmiss a game this season — Houston’s Tari Eason and Kenyon MartinJr., Chicago’s Nikola Vucevic and Patrick Williams, Boston’sDerrick White, Golden State teammates Kevon Looney and JordanPoole, New York’s Isaiah Hartenstein and Sacramento’s HarrisonBarnes also played in all 82 for their clubs this season.

The NBA’s all-time record for games in a season probably is oneof those records that’ll never be broken. Walt Bellamy played in 88games in 1968-69 — 35 with New York, then 53 with Detroit.

SCORING MARGIN

San Antonio was outscored by just over 10 points per game thisseason — the worst margin in Spurs history.

It was the 20th time in NBA history that a team had beenoutscored, on average, by double digits for an entire season.

3’s DOWN

For nine straight seasons — 2012-13 through 2020-21 — the NBAsaw a record set annually for 3-pointers made per game.

It seems the growth era from beyond the arc has plateaued.

For the second consecutive year, 3-pointers made dropped thisseason, albeit slightly. The league saw an average of 24.7 3s pergame this season, down from 24.9 per game last season and therecord 25.4 per game in 2020-21.

The league finished the regular season with 30,359 3s made —just off the record total of 30,598 last season. But teams alsoattempted, on average, about 3% fewer 3-pointers this season thanthey did a year ago.

3s UP

That said, there were more highly prolific 3-point shooters thisseason than ever before. The league finished with 20 players withat least 200 3-pointers — the most ever, just ahead of the 18 whomade at least 200 3s last season.

The 20 in the 200 Club this year: Golden State’s Klay Thompson,Indiana’s Buddy Hield, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Cleveland’sDonovan Mitchell, Portland’s Damian Lillard, Boston’s Jayson Tatum,Brooklyn’s Malik Beasley, New York’s Julius Randle, Dallas’ TimHardaway Jr., Portland’s Anfernee Simons, New Orleans’ CJ McCollum,Golden State’s Jordan Poole, Toronto’s Fred VanVleet, Minnesota’sAnthony Edwards, Sacramento’s Keegan Murray, Miami’s Tyler Herro,Sacramento’s Kevin Huerter, Chicago’s Zach LaVine, New Orleans’Trey Murphy III and Utah’s Lauri Markkanen.

AND 3s RECORDS

The Warriors finished with 1,363 3-pointers as a team, the mostby any team in an NBA season. The previous record was 1,323 by the2018-19 Houston Rockets.

Four of the six most prolific 3-point seasons in NBA historyhappened this season: The Warriors broke the record for a team,Boston (1,315) finished eight behind Houston’s 2018-19 mark, Dallas(1,246) made the fifth-most in a season and Milwaukee (1,217) madethe sixth-most in a season.

Golden State, Boston, Dallas and Milwaukee obviously also settheir franchise single-season record for total 3s made. So didBrooklyn, Indiana, the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis, OklahomaCity, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Sacramento.

BETTING STATS

Those who bet the Oklahoma City Thunder all season long probablydid quite well.

The Thunder covered the spread a league-best 58.5% of the timethis season, just ahead of Orlando and Philadelphia (57.3%).

The Los Angeles Lakers were a perfect 50% against the spread —41 times covering, 41 times not.

Dallas and San Antonio bettors likely weren’t happy. Those clubsboth covered only 39% of the time, just a bit worse than Miami andDetroit (both 40.5%).

ONE OF EACH

Golden State’s 56-point win over Portland on Sunday was thebiggest of the season. The biggest rout going into the season’sfinal day was a 45-point win by New Orleans on Nov. 21 — againstthe Warriors.

That made the Warriors the first team since the 1997-98 TrailBlazers to win a game by at least 45, and lose a game by at least45, in the same season.

Portland beat Dallas 120-75 on Nov. 17, 1998. The Blazers lostto Indiana 124-59 on Feb. 27, 1998.