ProductEvidenceNotebookPricingFAQ
Sign inOpen the tool
ProductEvidencePricingFAQNotebookSign in
NBLThe season, counted20 September 20263 min read

More points, same threes: how NBL scoring rose without the long ball

NBL teams scored 5.8 more points a game in 2025-26 than in 2020-21 while making almost the same number of threes; this is where the extra points came from.

By AdamNumbers to the 2025-26 regular season
Figure 1

Where the extra 5.8 points a team-game came from

regular season · 2020-21 against 2025-26
From threes 28.2 → 28.5+0.3
From twos 44.1 → 47.1+3.0
From free throws 13.1 → 15.6+2.5
points a team-game more than in 2020-21
Points from threes are three times the threes made. Points from twos are twice the twos made, where twos are field goals minus threes. Points from free throws are free throws made. Changes come from season totals, rounded. 324 team-games in 2020-21, 330 in 2025-26. Read from Punt's database on 15 September 2026.
Show the numbers
Points from2020-212025-26Change
threes28.228.5+0.3
twos44.147.1+3.0
free throws13.115.6+2.5
All points85.491.2+5.8

The short version

  • NBL teams scored 91.2 points a game in 2025-26, up from 85.4 in 2020-21. Regular season, per team-game: 330 and 324 team-games.
  • Threes made hardly changed: 9.4 a game in 2020-21, 9.5 in 2025-26. Attempts rose from 27.1 to 28.7; the percentage fell from 34.7% to 33.1%.
  • Of the extra 5.8 points, 0.3 came from threes, 3.0 from twos and 2.5 from free throws. Twos are derived: field goals minus threes.
  • South East Melbourne attempted 36.5 threes a game in 2025-26. No other club attempted more than 29.9.

What is being counted

Every figure here is a regular-season average per team-gameOne club in one game: its players' box-score rows added together. The 165 regular-season games of 2025-26 make 330 team-games. over six seasons, from 2020-21 to 2025-26. Finals are left out because the number of finals changes from year to year. The feed records field goals, threes and free throws, attempted and made, for every player in every game; everything about twos is worked out from those.

Points went up

Teams scored 85.4 points a game in 2020-21 and 84.5 in 2021-22. Then came three rises in a row, to 88.1, 90.6 and a high of 92.9 in 2024-25, before 91.2 in 2025-26. From the first season to the last, that is 5.8 more a game.

Figure 2

Points per team-game, by season

regular season · team-games in grey
02550751002020-21n=32485.42021-22n=28084.52022-23n=27888.12023-24n=28090.62024-25n=29092.92025-26n=33091.2
A club's points in one game, averaged over every regular-season team-game that season. The data stores a season under the year it ends. Read from Punt's database on 15 September 2026.
Show the numbers
SeasonTeam-gamesPointsField-goal attemptsFree-throw attempts
2020-2132485.470.617.2
2021-2228084.570.618.9
2022-2327888.170.220.5
2023-2428090.671.622.9
2024-2529092.972.421.6
2025-2633091.272.720.9

Threes did not, or not by much

Three-point attempts ran 27.1, 28.1, 27.9, 26.4, 29.1 and 28.7 a game. Threes made were 9.4 in 2020-21 and 9.5 in 2025-26, because the three-point percentage, pooled as all threes made over all threes attempted in the season, went from 34.7% to 33.1%. Threes were 38.5% of field-goal attempts in 2020-21 and 39.5% in 2025-26.

Figure 3

Threes attempted per team-game, by season

regular season · threes made in grey
0102030402020-219.4 made27.12021-229.1 made28.12022-239.6 made27.92023-248.9 made26.42024-2510.2 made29.12025-269.5 made28.7
Three-point attempts and makes as the feed records them, summed over each club's players and averaged per team-game. Read from Punt's database on 15 September 2026.
Show the numbers
SeasonThrees attemptedThrees madeThree-point %Share of field-goal attempts
2020-2127.19.434.7%38.5%
2021-2228.19.132.4%39.8%
2022-2327.99.634.4%39.7%
2023-2426.48.933.7%36.9%
2024-2529.110.235%40.2%
2025-2628.79.533.1%39.5%
threes attempted a game
27.1 → 28.7
2020-21 to 2025-26
threes made a game
9.4 → 9.5
three-point percentage
34.7% → 33.1%
pooled across the season

Where the 5.8 points came from

Split the rise by kind of basket. Points from threes went from 28.2 a game to 28.5, a rise of 0.3. Points from twos went from 44.1 to 47.1, a rise of 3.0: teams attempted about as many twos, 43.4 a game and then 44.0, and made more of them, with the two-point percentage going from 50.8% to 53.6%. Free throws gave the other 2.5. Free-throw attempts rose from 17.2 a game to 20.9, after a peak of 22.9 in 2023-24.

Figure 4

How the points were made, by season

share of all regular-season points · share from threes at the end
2020-2133%
2021-2232%
2022-2333%
2023-2429%
2024-2533%
2025-2631%
threestwosfree throws
Each bar is a whole season's points, split three ways from season totals. Twos are derived as field goals minus threes. Read from Punt's database on 15 September 2026.
Show the numbers
SeasonThreesTwosFree throws
2020-2133.1%51.6%15.3%
2021-2232.3%51.1%16.6%
2022-2332.6%50.3%17.1%
2023-2429.5%51.8%18.7%
2024-2532.9%49.7%17.4%
2025-2631.2%51.7%17.1%

As a share of all points, threes went from 33.1% in 2020-21 to 31.2% in 2025-26, with a low of 29.5% in 2023-24. Free throws went from 15.3% to 17.1%. Twos stayed near half: 51.6% and 51.7%.

Shot mix, not pace

This is a count of where points came from, not of how fast games were played. Pace, the number of possessions a team has in a game, is not derived here, so this page cannot say whether teams scored more because they had more possessions or because more of them ended in points. Field-goal attempts did rise, from 70.6 a game to 72.7.

↗Every NBL player's game logEach player's points and threes in Punt, game by game.Open NBL →

South East Melbourne

One club sat well apart in 2025-26. South East Melbourne attempted 36.5 threes a game and made 12.8, at 35.2%. Threes were 45% of their field-goal attempts and 38.2% of their points. Cairns and Melbourne were next, at 29.9 attempts; Illawarra attempted the fewest, 26.2. Opponents attempted 23.8 threes a game against South East Melbourne, the fewest faced by any club. They finished 22–11.

Figure 5

Threes attempted per game, every club, 2025-26

regular season · 33 games each · made and percentage in grey

League, 28.7 a team-game

South East Melbourne 12.8 made · 35.2%36.5
Cairns 10 made · 33.5%29.9
Melbourne 9.6 made · 32.2%29.9
Sydney 10.5 made · 35.4%29.5
NZ Breakers 8.5 made · 30.8%27.6
Perth 8.8 made · 32.1%27.5
Adelaide 9.9 made · 36.2%27.4
Brisbane 7.5 made · 28.1%26.5
Tasmania 8.6 made · 32.8%26.3
Illawarra 8.8 made · 33.7%26.2
South East Melbourneevery other club
Three-point attempts per game over each club's 33 regular-season games. The line is the league's 28.7 a team-game. Read from Punt's database on 15 September 2026.
Show the numbers
ClubWon–lostThrees attemptedThrees madeThree-point %Share of points from threesOpponents' threes attempted
South East Melbourne Phoenix22–1136.512.835.2%38.2%23.8
Cairns Taipans9–2429.91033.5%35.9%27.8
Melbourne United20–1329.99.632.2%31.4%26.1
Sydney Kings24–929.510.535.4%31.6%32.5
NZ Breakers13–2027.68.530.8%27.8%31.1
Perth Wildcats21–1227.58.832.1%29.2%29.3
Adelaide 36ers23–1027.49.936.2%32.2%28.2
Brisbane Bullets6–2726.57.528.1%27.2%28.4
Tasmania JackJumpers14–1926.38.632.8%29.7%27.8
Illawarra Hawks13–2026.28.833.7%28.4%32.3

Adelaide made the highest share of their threes, 36.2%, and Brisbane the lowest, 28.1%. Bryce Cotton made the most threes of any player: 104 from 273 for Adelaide, 38.1%. Nathan Sobey of South East Melbourne made 103 from 293. The most by one club in one game across the six seasons, finals included, was Tasmania's 22 from 42 against Illawarra on 20 February 2022.

The working

Team-game
One club's player rows in one game, added up. Regular season: 324, 280, 278, 280, 290, 330 team-games, 2020-21 to 2025-26.
Derived
Twos attempted = field goals attempted − threes attempted; twos made likewise. Points from threes = 3 × threes made; from twos = 2 × twos made; from free throws = free throws made. Percentages are pooled: the season's makes divided by its attempts.
Season length
36 regular-season games a club in 2020-21, 28 from 2021-22 to 2023-24, 29 in 2024-25 and 33 in 2025-26. The data stores a season under the year it ends.
Left out
Finals, except in the most-threes-in-a-game record. Game 7491 (2022-23, Round 14) has no player rows. No other team-game was missing a stat.
Pace
Not derived. Nothing here separates more possessions from more points per possession.
Read
15 September 2026, from Punt's database. Completed games only.
Not in this article
Pace, or how next season's scoring will go.
The notebook, by email

New articles, by email. Only when one is worth sending, and never a pick.

NBL in PuntEvery player, every gameOpen

Keep reading

All articles →
NBL
1510R1R5R9R13R17R21R22SydneyAdelaideMelbourne
The season, counted3 min readThe 2025-26 NBL season, round by roundHow Sydney went from 7–7 after Round 11 to the top of the NBL ladder and the title, with the final ladder and the five-game championship series.
NBL311
2024-252025-26Sam Mennenga 11.917.7 Sam Mennenga
The season, counted3 min readSam Mennenga scored 5.8 more points a game than last NBL seasonSam Mennenga scored 5.8 more points a game in 2025-26 than 2024-25, the biggest rise among 42 NBL players with real minutes in both seasons.
NBL
The season, counted4 min readWhere the NBL shoots fromEvery shot of the 2026 NBL season on one court: the rim, the arc, and the 8.5% of shots taken in the middle of the floor, where nobody wants to be.

AFL & NRL player-props research: hit rates, game logs and matchups — so every prop is a decision, not a guess.

Product

AFL propsNRL propsPricingSign in

Company

AboutBlogContact

Resources

GlossaryMethodologyAcknowledgements

Legal

TermsPrivacyResponsible gamblingAccessibility
© 2026 Project Punt Pty Ltd · ABN 99 701 641 698 · Sydney · 18+. Gamble responsibly. Every number is a count of what already happened, with what it is out of. Nothing here is a tip.