Points and shooting percentages

Points tell you who scored, but shooting percentages tell you how well a team is scoring — and that is the part that predicts what happens next.

Field goals

Any shot from the floor (not a free throw) is a field goal. The box score lists makes and attempts together, like 9-18: nine made, eighteen tried. Divide them and you get field-goal percentage (FG%) — here 50%.

The three key percentages

• FG% — all field goals made ÷ attempted. Around 45–50% is healthy for a team.
• 3P% — three-pointers made ÷ attempted. League average sits near 35–37%.
• FT% — free throws made ÷ attempted. Good shooters live in the 75–85% range.

Why percentages beat raw points

A team can score 110 points and still be inefficient if it took 100 shots to get there. Percentages adjust for volume, so they reveal whether a hot night is real shooting or just lots of attempts.

A cold shooting half often regresses toward a team's season average — one reason a halftime score can be misleading.

For predictions, shooting efficiency is the engine: it feeds nearly every advanced metric in the next chapter, and a sudden gap in FG% usually explains why one side is pulling away.