Hoops

Chart showing change in NBL scoring and fouls this season

I always thought of 'game pace' as the culmination of several factors, like:

Transition = quick ball movement from back court to front court

Intensity = level of movement in the players to keep up pressure and make defenders work hard on and off the ball

I am thinking that if the officiating helps the PG and his team mates get that transition game going and coaches are increasing the intensity, it adds up to more scoring opportunities.

Add to this the improvements we have seen in some of the imports, the style of play and the game overall is looking a bit better, IMHO only of course...

If one wanted to see how the games are "flowing" compared to previous, in addition to checking average possessions, points per possession, fouls and free throw attempts, why not also look at game duration? Presumably with better flow the games will end sooner.

^For somebody more interested than myself to investigate.

"Many thought the increase in points would come at the cost of the game-flow, with lots of fouls being called and therefore the extra points all being found at the free throw line (aka, the boring way)."

The graph doesn't disprove that the points are coming the boring way.
It would have been interesting to break that points/possession line down proportionally into free throws and field goals to see where the points are coming from.

Actually guys, Nathan is correct - at this stage pace hasn't really increased at all between seasons, in fact it's veeery slightly decreased.

^ except according to other stats on OzHoops, the pace of the game hasn't changed at all.

More controversy, but the refereeing is no more inconsistent than it has been over the past few seasons.

Good to see evidence of the rule interpretation changes having a positive effect (assuming that one buys into the concept that scoring is correlated with entertainment).