Scoring Blitz: A record breaking season

This NBL season has produced some of the best offensive displays the league has ever seen, from both a team and individual perspective. 

In the last seven seasons, there has been a total of nine 40-point games recorded. This season there has been 10 already, with four different players managing to put up 40 or more. 

Bryce Cotton, who has nine career 40-point games, has eclipsed that mark five times this season on his own. Both Chris Goulding and Jaylen Adams have done it twice and James Batemon has the other.

It was Batemon who was first to reach the 50-point mark in the Bullets' Round 9 win over Perth, where he scored 51 at 67 per cent shooting. It was the first time a player has scored 50 since Goulding did it back in 2014, when he played for the Melbourne Tigers. Batemon’s achievement didn’t last long, as Cotton quickly re-wrote the record books just two weeks later with an astonishing 59 points against the Breakers. 

The previous best season for 40-point games was in 2023, when four players managed to eclipse the mark. It was Mitch Creek and Derrick Walton Jr who scored 46 and 45 points respectively, in a double overtime thriller against each other in Round 11. 

It hasn’t just been the brilliant individual play that has stood out across this season, but rather a major shift in game style from nearly every team across the league. 

Before this season began, only three times has a team averaged more than 95 points per game, with the last being the South East Melbourne Phoenix in 2020 who averaged 95.4. This season there are four teams who are averaging over 95 points, led by the Illawarra Hawks who are scoring 101.8 per game.

It’s no surprise that the Hawks have managed to be so damaging on the offensive end, as they are the most efficient team from the field, shooting at 49 per cent for the season. They also lead the league for average points scored in the paint at 51.5 per game, compared to the Taipans who are the lowest at just 34.2.

In total, teams this season are averaging 92.7 points per game combined, which is the most of any season in the 40-minute era. With Hawks the best, it’s Perth who sit second at 99.5 points per game, which places both teams as the highest the league has ever seen in the 40-minute era. The previous best was the 1983 West Adelaide Bearcats who averaged 97.2 points per game.