Last season, the Spurs averaged 98.5 points per game, slightly above the league average.
Since aiming for Duncan in the tanking 96-97 season, the Spurs had been averaging scores below the league average for 10 consecutive seasons until the 05-06 season; last season was the first time they bucked that trend.
Although the Spurs have always been somewhat neglected by the media, Zhang Yang still saw some objective media analysis of the Spurs' changes after last season ended.
Sports Illustrated created an 'NBA Team Portrait,' and when analyzing the Spurs, they praised Popovich for imitating Larry Brown's approach from 10 years prior, setting aside his stubbornness and beginning to embrace offense.
Then Popovich got 'slapped in the face,' as the Spurs, amid a league-wide increase in average scoring, regressed instead of improving, averaging only 95.5 points per game, a sharp 3-point decline from the previous season.
