The frequency of every final score that has occurred in the NBA [OC]

One thing is that the sheer number of points in any given game is extremely high. As you can see on the chart, even games that are in the low double digits are almost unheard of. And those numbers are from a lot of scoring since the most points you can get in one shot is 3. So what you see in basketball is not entirely different from what you see in other sports. You're just thinking of it in terms of percentages, rather than raw points. A basketball team that wins 110-100 has only done what a soccer team has if they win 5-0. Scored 5 more times than their opponents did. The margin of victory is the same, it's just that one game has a lot more scoring on both sides than the other.

Basketball also forces players to push fast. As soon as they have the ball, the team has 24 seconds to take a shot. If you stop dribbling for any reason, you have to pass or shoot. This means that players are getting off a lot more shots and thus will score a lot more.

Finally, basketball has virtually no effective way to defend. Soccer, hockey and American football all have either goalies or a good chunk of the team physically blocking the goal. In basketball, the basket is completely exposed. If soccer had no goalie, more shots would go in and a LOT more shots would be taken, even if the net was smaller to compensate. As I recall, in basketball you can't even jump up and stop a ball if that ball is on a downward arc towards the net. Defenders are very limited in their ability to touch their opponents and all that is needed is one opening for a shot. Basketball defence is all about stalling and running down the shot clock until the ball can be taken away, rather than physically obstructing the net.

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