Anthony-led Nuggets are aberration

By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Tuesday, March 9
Updated: March 9
1:45 PM ET

Remember the good old days?

When Grant Hill re-injured his ankle before the All Star break, former Rookie of the Year Mike Miller was shipped out of town for Drew Gooden (since demoted) and Gordan Giricek (since traded) and Horace Grant nearly came to blows with then head coach Doc Rivers on an airplane?

That was when Tracy McGrady averaged 32.1 points per game.

Well, a year later, scoring is down across the league by just over four points a game as McGrady again leads the league in points per game but this time at 27.5.

Orlando got the free agent they wanted over the summer. The Magic's starting rotation has remained relatively healthy over the entire course of the season. McGrady, himself, is on pace to play more games this year for the Magic than he ever has before. But, as a team, they are scoring 3.4 points per game less than last year and their record has gone from 42-40 to a current NBA-worst 18-47.

McGrady blames the zone defenses. Everyone else blames Bruce Bowen. And the author of the new rules that were supposed to increase scoring, Jerry Colangelo, wants to up and sell his Phoenix Suns franchise as the team has gone from 95.5 points per game last year to 93.7 this year. Twenty of the league's 29 teams also show decreases in scoring.

And the latest headline in the Arizona Republic reads: Mavericks' Zone Frustrates Suns.

McGrady can only shake his head at the irony as we see how other teams across the league are doing in scoring compared to last year's output.

Top 5 Scoring Increases
1. Denver Nuggets
Difference: +12.5 (84.2 ppg. to 96.7 ppg)
At this rate, Carmelo Anthony will be averaging 37 points per game by June. Let me explain. In November, Melo was averaging 17.7 points per game on 38 percent shooting. In December, he boosted those numbers to 19.6 ppg on 40 percent shooting. By the end of January, he was shooting 45 percent, which brings us to February, when the rookie exploded for 27.1 points per game on 49 percent shooting from the field, 43 percent from long range and 80 percent from the line. March? April? May? Points are up. Wins are up. And Nene Hilario, who was the second-leading scorer last year at 10.5, is now just Nene and the fourth-leading scorer on the team at 11.4.

2. Seattle SuperSonics
Difference: +4.5 (92.1 ppg. to 96.6 ppg)
Last year, the Sonics had four guys who could hit the 3-pointer. This year, with the addition of Flip Murray, they have five. The problem, though, is that they'd be much better served if that number were three or even two. As it stands now, all five of their top five scorers are perimeter players, and as a result, almost 30 percent of their shots come from distance. Rebounds are down. Assists are down. Defense is non-existent. But, hey, they're making 3.4 more 3-pointers a game than last year.

3. Sacramento Kings
Difference: +2.9 (101.7 ppg. to 104.6 ppg)
The good news for Kings' opponents is that after scoring 105 points per game in January on 47 percent shooting, the Kings went down to 103.8 in February on 45.9 percent shooting. The bad news is that those numbers would still lead the league in scoring and place them second in shooting. And here's the worse news of all. With Chris Webber back, the Kings are averaging 107.5 points per game in March with Bobby Jackson still in reserve.

4. Miami Heat
Difference: +2.8 (85.6 ppg. to 88.4 ppg)
Lamar Odom is about another 30-point game away from leading this team in scoring, rebounding and assists. This team was dead in the water before Pat Riley skipped out and Caron Butler went lame. Now, they're tied for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs and Odom is posting career highs in points, boards and creative ways to get one of the worst shooting teams in the league into the win column. Who would have thought that a Heat team whose leading scorer, Eddie Jones, is shooting 41 percent from the field and whose third-leading scorer is a rookie while the fourth-leading scorer is shooting 38 percent from the field would actually be better than last year? Well, as a matter of fact, Odom did.

5. Los Angeles Clippers
Difference: +2.3 (93.8 ppg. to 96.1 ppg)
Elton Brand is scoring a career high and shooting better than he did last year. Corey Maggette is scoring a career high and shooting better than he did last year. Quentin Richardson is scoring a career high and shooting better than he did last year. That's the good news. The bad news is that after all of that, the Clippers have gone from being the second-worst team in the Western Conference to being the third-worst team and you can't expect your top three scorers to post career numbers every season.

Top 5 Scoring Decreases
25. New Jersey Nets
Difference: -5.8 (95.4 ppg. to 89.6 ppg)
The Nets may not be scoring more. But they are scoring better. Last year, Jason Kidd led them at 18.7 points per game but shot only 41 percent from the field. Heck, he's shot 40 percent for his career. This year, the Nets are led in scoring by Kenyon Martin (17.6 ppg) and Richard Jefferson (17.4 ppg) and they're shooting 48 percent and 49 percent, respectively. But this didn't happen overnight. In November, Kidd averaged 17.2 points per game and the team scored 88 a game while Martin and Jefferson combined for 31 and the team went 7-9. By February, Kidd was down to 14.5 points per game and the team scored 93.7 a game while Martin and Jefferson combined for 36.8 and the team went 11-2.

26. Indiana Pacers
Difference: -6.5 (96.8 ppg. to 90.3 ppg)
I can bust out my slide rule and calculator and pretend like I know how Rick Carlisle can turn your ordinary NBA team into a stingy defensive phenomenon almost overnight. But, bah humbug, it's a lot easier showing the results. Last year, the Pacers scored more and won less with an average margin of victory of 3.5. This year, the Pacers are scoring less and winning more with an average margin of victory of five. Yes, the Pacers seem less exciting. Yes, almost as boring as last year's Pistons. And, yes, they are the one team in the entire NBA that has already clinched a playoff spot by March 8. But don't ask me to explain.

27. Toronto Raptors
Difference: -6.6 (90.9 ppg. to 84.3 ppg)
This team was built around a healthy Vince Carter, circa 2001, when he averaged 27.6 points per game on 46 percent shooting and had missed only seven games in three seasons. The following year, he missed 22 games. The year after that, he missed 39 games. So far this year, he's missed nine games and his numbers have fallen to 21.5 points per game on 41 percent shooting and it took a flurry of trades just to get this team to 80 points a game. Let's not forget that it wasn't to long ago, November to be exact, that this team averaged only 76.8 points per game.

28. Philadelphia 76ers
Difference: -8.2 (96.8 ppg. to 88.6 ppg)
Philly loves Allen Iverson. Philly loves Allen Iverson not. The problem, though, isn't Allen Iverson. Last year's top five scorers averaged 76 points per game but had only 25 games missed to injuries. This year's top five scorers are averaging 76.4 points per game but have 96 games missed to injury and counting. Who knows how good they would have been and how many more points they would have scored if either Iverson and Glenn Robinson, the team's top two leading scorers at a combined 43.6 points per game, hadn't missed 40 of 64 games so far.

29. Golden State Warriors
Difference: -9.0 (102.4 ppg. to 93.4 ppg)
It isn't Jason Richardson's fault that the team, for whatever reasons, cut ties with Antawn Jamison (22.2 points per game) and Gilbert Arenas (18.3 points per game), but all of a sudden he's the leading scorer at 18.9 while the next guy in line, Nick Van Exel, has missed 22 games this year, and the guy behind him, Erick Dampier, had a career scoring average of 8.2 per game coming into the season. Either way, you're only going to squeeze so much out of Mike Dunleavy, Brian Cardinal and Speedy Claxton until you realize that you're on pace to win only 33 games this year and end up about eight games out of the playoffs after winning 38 last year and only six games out of the playoffs.