BBall defense boring? A nice read on pre-shot clock days

Mar 20, 2019, 5:29 AM

Think about sitting through your team scoring once every 5 minutes for a whole game.

Chopped down from the much, much longer original article here...http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/12/lowest-scoring-game-nba-history-invention-saved-professional-basketball/

The Lowest Scoring Game in NBA History and the Fix that Saved Professional Basketball

On a cold, late November Wednesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crowd of 7,021 arrived to the Minneapolis Auditorium to watch an NBA game between the Fort Wayne Pistons and the Minneapolis Lakers. This was a new experience for many of the fans in the stands. The NBA had formed due to a merger between rival leagues, the Basketball Association of [...]

The Fort Wayne Pistons did not match up in talent to the Lakers and they knew it. But the coach of the Pistons, and Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer, Murray Mendenhall had a plan. Mendenhall’s philosophy for the game was quite simple: If the Lakers never got the ball, they could never score. If they could never score, they could never win the game.

As the seconds ticked by and the Pistons did nothing but pass the ball back and forth between one another, everyone not on the Pistons became frustrated. The Lakers players stood around, not knowing what to do. Occasionally they would foul simply to have a chance to get the ball back. The referees yelled at the Pistons players and at coach Mendenhall to play ball. Worst of all, the fans in the stands began to boo and stomp their feet in anger. At half-time, the score was 13 to 11 in favor of the Lakers with Mikan scoring 12 of the Lakers’ points. This was the new league’s worst nightmare.

The second half was even worse. The Lakers, despite being annoyed at the Pistons’ strategy, began to subscribe to the old adage “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Each team holding the ball for minutes at a time; the two teams only scored 13 points combined in the second half.

As the clock mercifully ticked down to zero in the fourth quarter, the Pistons held a one point lead, 19 to 18. A missed Lakers’ shot at the buzzer gave the Pistons the win, and upset, in the lowest scoring game in NBA history. Mikan was “held” to a game high 15 points. Lakers coach John Kundla, disgusted, said after the game, ““If that’s basketball, I don’t want any part of it.”

Podoloff knew the only way this league was going to flourish was by making sure the game was fun and exciting to the people who paid his and the players’ salary – the fans. “It seems to me that the teams showed complete disregard for the interest of the fans by the type of game they played,” said Podoloff the next day.

As the NBA and the Nationals entered the 1954-1955 season, there was fear that this may be professional basketball’s last hurrah, exemplified by The New York Times writing that “professional basketball’s existence was in jeopardy.” But Biasone had an idea. He had watched and studied hundreds of basketball games since his Nats joined the league over eight years ago.

After much thought, he determined that a “well-balanced” game meant that each team took 60 shots a game, or 120 total shots in a game. Each game was 48 minutes, or 2880 seconds, long. Using basic math, Biasone divided 2880 seconds by 120 shots and got a magic number – 24. According to this formula, a well-balanced game required a shot every 24 seconds. Therefore, a clock counting down from 24 seconds would force teams to shoot in this amount of time or less, creating a much more exciting and fun game.

The 1954-1955 season saw scoring jump by over 13 points a game from the previous season. Along with scoring, fan excitement soared. The Boston Celtics became the first NBA team to average more than 100 points. By 1959, every team was averaging more than 100 points per game. NBA president Maurice Podoloff admitted that this innovation rescued basketball: "The twenty-four-second rule has worked so well that I firmly believe it has proved the salvation of professional basketball. So far this year attendance receipts at our games have increased 57 percent… The adoption of the clock (has been) most important event in the NBA."

Today, a monument, an actual shot clock that counts down from 24, stands in downtown Syracuse, New York commemorating the impact Daniel Biasone and his shot clock had in saving the game of basketball.

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BBall defense boring? A nice read on pre-shot clock days

Re: BBall defense boring? A nice read on pre-shot clock days

I was under the assumption that everyone here thought

You obviously haven't played or watched much basketball!***

You don't have to go back that far! Do you remember Dean Smith

Re: BBall defense boring? A nice read on pre-shot clock days

Re: BBall defense boring? A nice read on pre-shot clock days

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