National Basketball Association

Buckets on Buckets on Buckets

Updated Aug. 29, 2020 12:52 a.m. ET

When the NBA season resumed in late July after a nearly 5-month break, many expected the layoff to manifest itself in the form of rust, fatigue, or below-average offense. However, that theory was soon squashed, as teams began to put on mesmerizing offensive displays on a near-nightly basis.

In the first 10 games of the NBA’s restart, every single team scored at least 101 points. And the shot-making and offensive production has continued deeper into the playoffs, as the current league-wide offensive efficiency rating of 113.6 is the highest such rating in NBA postseason history.

While the playoffs are typically associated with shortened rotations and grittier defense, the tone of this year's postseason was set in the very first playoff matchup between the Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets.

Despite losing the game, Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell put on an offensive performance for the ages, scoring 57 points.

Mitchell set a new franchise record for points in a playoff game and recorded the third-most points in a playoff game in NBA history.

Not to be outdone, Dallas Mavericks All-Star Luka Doncic kept the offensive fireworks going in the final game of the opening day of the playoffs, dropping 42 points and setting a new NBA playoff record for scoring in a playoff debut.

The Jazz-Nuggets series has certainly featured the most noteworthy individual performances, considering Mitchell scored 51 in Game 4 and the Nuggets’ Jamal Murray responded with 50 in the same game.

Their playoff duel marked the first time in NBA playoff history that two opposing players each scored 50 points, and to top it off, this is only the second postseason in NBA history in which there have been three 50-point performances (2001 being the other).

However, the offensive prowess on display this postseason has not just been seen on the individual level, but from a team perspective as well.

Entering the postseason, only seven teams in NBA playoff history had reached the 150-point threshold in a single game, yet that lofty mark has already been reached twice in the first round of this postseason.

The Toronto Raptors exploded for a franchise-record 150 points in Game 4 of their sweep of the Brooklyn Nets, and the Los Angeles Clippers recorded the third-most points in NBA playoff history with a whopping 154 points in their 43-point drubbing of the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of their first round matchup.

Unsurprisingly, this marks the first time in NBA playoff history that two teams have reached the 150-point threshold in the same postseason.

Amazingly, each of these offensive feats has been accomplished before the first round has even concluded.

Must be something magical about that bubble.