San Antonio scores are currently ranked first in the league, but what is interesting is that they rely more on landings and close jumpers rather than layups or dunks.
In the victory against the Wizards last Tuesday, all the Spurs scored a total of 72 points in the paint area, which is a huge number. Calling the wind and rain in the inside can be said to be the main reason for this victory, and this advantage has been maintained for nearly a year, and San Antonio has been the best in the league's inside scoring throughout the season.
When we study it carefully, we will find an interesting phenomenon. Overall, the Spurs are extremely good at getting scores in the paint area, but their direct attacks on the basket are below average.
San Antonio averaged 54 points inside the league this season, but he only ranked 18th in the penalty area and only 16 shots in the penalty area. The reason why the Spurs can beat other teams in the interior is that they control the paint area except the penalty area, which ranks second in this area and ranked first in the average shooting. All landings and close shots are dominant areas for the Spurs.
Anyone who has watched their competition probably feels like this. The Spurs actually do not have a large number of breakthrough players, they are the kind of sharp swords that can instantly break out and pass the defensive players ignore the space and rush straight to the basket, but they do have elites who can rely on their bodies to fight into the inside and jump shots on their opponents. Dezhangtai Murray is very good at this. He ranks ninth in the league in the inside area outside the penalty area, and Kelden Johnson is also ranked in the top 20. In fact, both of them have greater shooting range than direct attack on the basket. The same is true for Derek White and Devin Wassel.
In fact, this situation is not uncommon. Not only these players' attacks are concentrated in this range - many stars are the same - but the overall inside shots of most teams will still be concentrated in the penalty area, and they will not focus too much on medium and short distances. The Spurs are the only two exceptions. The Grizzlies have this situation, but the difference in the number of shots between the two of them is not as good as the Spurs. Currently, the number of shots near the penalty area rim is only two more than the number of shots in the medium and short distances, which is the most extreme example in the league.
Even the team's big men have this trend. Jacob Peartel's short-range shooting ranks 19th in the center of the league, and his shooting percentage is even ahead of all the big men. It is obvious that Pelter perfectly refined his shooting skills. Drew Eubanks is not so experienced, but he can still rank in the top 30 centers in terms of shooting and shooting percentage. As a striker, Saidis Young has also made similar progress, with shooting and hitting in this area being the highest in his career. It can be said that all Spurs players love this area.
Let's look at a more exotic data. The Spurs rank sixth in the fast break scoring. You should know that fast breaks usually end with dunks, layups, or open three-pointers, and few people will throw. In order to ensure that the facts are not too weird, I specially checked all the fast break scores of the Spurs' offensive and defensive conversions this season. I can say with certainty that most of their fast break scores are indeed mainly based on empty baskets and outside shots. There are some throws and jumpers but none of them are enough to surpass their penalty area in the fast break. So, the argument on the other side is correct. Most of the mid- and short-range shots come from the Spurs' half-field positional battle.
When you analyze these data more deeply, the conclusions you draw are becoming more and more interesting. In recent years, the number of players in the entire league's shots in non-counterfeiting areas has increased significantly. In the past 10 years, only the Grizzlies in the 19-20 season have surpassed the Grizzlies and Spurs this year in this field. Similarly, the shooting percentage of this area of the entire league is also rising. The top two hit percentages this season are the Jazz and the Spurs. In the past 10 years, only the Suns and Wizards have surpassed them in the 19-20 season. The Silver and Black Legion is becoming the pioneer in leading this trend.
But it is still difficult to determine whether this trend is good or bad. The Spurs are also the fourth middle-distance team in the league, so they are not simply converting mid- and long-distance jump shots into short distances. This shows that apart from Dejunta Murray and Derek White, most players in rotation have an acceptable range in this area, and their shooting percentage is indeed more than 50%, proving that these are not bad choices. Many people think they should blame those who have made hastily shots without trying to get a foul. However, from the overall team data, the number of shots in the penalty area and the number of free throws are not directly related. Of course, it may also be caused by the regulation that the action will not be counted when the foul is fouled.
In fact, looking back, the Spurs are good at painting areas but not good at attacking the basket. This data is indeed curious at the first time, but when you consider their individual players themselves, they will feel that it is more reasonable, and there are not many reasons. The most important factor is that they are not good at three-pointers and cannot create a large number of free throws. The lack of a strong breakthrough hand to tear open the defense line is the most reasonable hypothesis that causes this state.
It is obvious that the scoring in the paint area in the future will still be an important part of the Spurs' offensive end, no matter what the scoring method is. Of course, we are happy to see more layups and dunks in the half-court tactics, but I am afraid that if they tend to be reasonable, they will still use those attacks in the fast break, leaving the half-court position for throwing, pushing, and jumping shots.
