Blowing the whistle on NBA's scoring explosion

The story of the 2025-26 NBA season so far has been scoring. Teams and players are scoring at the highest rate in decades, but a big part of that isn't three-point shots or greater efficiency. It's lots and lots of foul calls.

Three teams are scoring over 124 points per game, which no team has done over a full season since the 1981-82 Denver Nuggets. 12 teams are averaging over 119 points, something only nine other teams have done this century. At the same time, there are nine teams drawing more than 23 fouls per game, something only two other teams have done in the past decade.

Luka Doncic is leading the NBA's free-throw explosion

Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers is leading the NBA with 34.6 points per game, aided greatly by getting 12.5 free-throw attempts per game. That's the most a guard has averaged in NBA history. Even shooting 79% from the foul line, Doncic is getting 9.9 points per game solely from free throws.

He's not alone in feasting at the foul line. Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks is getting 10.2 free throws per game, while Doncic's teammate Austin Reaves gets to the line for 9.8 attempts. Paolo Banchero, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Maxey all average more than eight free throws per game, while foul-drawing legend James Harden is still getting 7.9 FTs per game at age 36.

It's not just stars or good teams either. The 1-13 Indiana Pacers and the 4-11 Dallas Mavericks are both drawing 24 fouls per game. The Orlando Magic are far from a dynamic offense, but they're leading the NBA in fouls drawn. As a result, NBA games are getting longer as more fouls means play stops more often, free throws happen with no time running off the clock and there's more video reviews.

Fans like scoring, but not foul shots

The result is artificially-inflated offense and a sense that neither players or referees have a consistent sense of what is and isn't a foul. An average game has eight more free throws than last season. Did players start defending differently, or are the officials calling the game tighter?

Doncic is a perfect example. The Lakers star got in great shape this summer. He's always been tough to guard, but he's actually driving slightly less than last season and shooting more from the mid-range. Is his greater fitness really the reason he's gone from 8.9 free-throw attempts as a Laker last season to 12.5 this year?

The inconsistency hurts the NBA. Gilgeous-Alexander had a fantastic run to his first title, but it was marred by fans chanting "foul merchant" at him, implying he was flopping for foul calls. It's hard to tell what constitutes a foul from season to season — and from the regular season to the postseason, which seems to have a completely different tolerance for physical play.

So while many teams are putting up eye-popping scoring numbers, some of that is being propped up by referees' whistles. Will teams keep pouring in points? It all depends on if the officials keep sending them to the free-throw line.