Scoring way up this season

AP Basketball Writer

NBA scoring is up. Way up.

At this pace, that won't change anytime soon.

Through the first eight full days of this season — a small sample size — NBA teams are averaging 113.4 points per game, the highest rate in 49 years. Teams are averaging 91 field-goal attempts per game, up five shots from last season, and the league is on an early pace to set records for 3-pointers made and attempted for the seventh straight year.

"I think guys are just getting more comfortable offensively in their games," Toronto point guard Kyle Lowry said. "I think everyone is just expanding, with the centers shooting 3s. I think that just opens the floor up a lot more. A lot more shots are going up, a lot more freedom of movement. It makes it more of an exciting game."

As recently as the 2014-15 season, teams were reaching the 100-point mark 51.5 percent of the time. So far this season, that figure is at 88.2 percent. And there are no shortage of other statistically baffling numbers out there in the early part of this season.

In the 51 games played through Tuesday, 49 have seen at least one team score 100 points. The losing team has wound up scoring 100 or more points a staggering 80.4 percent of the time. Minnesota scored 136 points in a non-overtime game and lost — the first time that's happened in the NBA since 1992. New Orleans posted a league-high 149 points against Sacramento last week. San Antonio scored 143, albeit in an overtime game, against the Los Angeles Lakers, the most by the Spurs in more than eight years.