re: How did nba games in the early 2000s sometimes end with 80-78ish scores?

A lot of it was just coaching choices. Coaches over-emphasized not making mistakes and draining the shot clock down. It's very similar to the mentality of football coaches who run vanilla rushing offenses b/c they're scared (think the "only 3 things happen when you pass and 2 are bad" mentality).

That's why the people online who pretend that was better basketball always make me curious if they go back and watch these shite fests of guys just standing around.

*ETA: one other issue was a talent issue that isn't present today. There wasn't enough talent for the recent expansions. After the Toronto/Vancouver expansion it REALLY hurt the NBA, especially on the back of 2 prior expansions adding 4 teams in the late 80s.

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The game just hasn’t been the same for a long time for various reasons already stated. When you give these freak athletes the ability to take numerous steps either to free themselves for a shot or to get to the basket, then it makes defense almost irrelevant. They walk/travel/carry whatever you like constantly.

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I'll agree with this.

I don't think we truly appreciate how much allowing these bunny hops backwards improves three-point shooting percentages.

If you watch games from the early 2000s and earlier, players dribbling forward had to stop forward their momentum and shoot while falling backwards, lest they get called for a travel. A handful of players like Jordan, Kobe, and Wade perfected this ability to make it reasonably efficient, but it required exceptional body control and jumping ability to avoid a strip or a block. Even really good fadeaway shooters like Carmelo Anthony were never consistently efficient with the shot.

Players today can pick up the ball and literally jump backwards with both legs to land in a shooting position, even if they do a three step shuffle to get set. This gives them a completely stable lift point during the shot, and the degree of difficulty is much, much lower.

Having said this, players to their credit have also maximized their ability to shoot from 3 point range because they know they'll have more open opportunities. It would be interesting to see how many points dead-eye midrange shooters like Drazen Petrovic, Wesley Person, Jeff Hornacek, Dale Ellis, and Mark Price would have scored in the modern NBA. Price is an especially intriguing player because he literally invented the idea of splitting double-teams and always looked like someone who belonged in a more wide-open game.

It wasn’t boring to watch. This new game is unwatchable

yes, they actually played defense. The no layup rule was created then. Also, they tended to lay more team offense, working to get everyone involved. Now , it's more like whoever gets the ball it's his turto go 1 on 5. I detest the NBA now. You asked.

Defense Big men

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It's ok, you can't argue with this level of make believe for someone who believes there was more team offense and passing back in the day.

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It's so weird

I think offenses did dick around to waste the shot clock, but it wasn't real offensive sets. It was just time wasting, and then they'd get the guy they wanted isolated (which was incredibly easy with the illegal defense rules) with like 8 seconds left on the clock to let him go one-on-one to cook.

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Much bigger teams often with multiple non offensive, oversized centers to counter Shaq.

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A little later era but I immediately thought of Zaza Pachulia & Jason Collins on the Hawks. Both sucked, but their job was to eat fouls & slow down guys like Dwight Howard

A power forward back then was basically a quicker center who could shoot from further than 5 feet out.

The skill level was low.

As it stands

80's and today had the best talent per team.
Then the 70's, then 2010's, and finally the worst of the last 50 years the 90's, which absolutely sucked.