2024 NBA playoffs real or not - Siakam, Brunson and scoring - ESPN

Following Wednesday night, every team in the 2024 NBA playoffs has now played two games. And while that puts us halfway to potential sweeps, it's also early in the NBA postseason, which requires its champion to win 16 times.

With that in mind, let's look at the early trends from a first round that has favored the higher seeds more than expected thus far. The average of 6.25 wins ahead in the standings for the eight teams with home-court advantage in the first round was tied for the lowest in an 82-game season since the NBA went to its current playoff format in 1984, yet those teams swept Game 1s at home.

There's plenty of time for things to change as the matchups shift toward the lower seeds' hosting starting Thursday night. Which notable statistics from the first few days of the 2024 playoffs — including a precipitous drop in points per game, Jalen Brunson's poor shooting and Pascal Siakam leading all players in scoring — might continue and which are more likely fluke than reality?

The NBA's scoring slowdown in the second half of the season was a key storyline, but teams still averaged 111.6 PPG after the All-Star break. There's been a much more substantial erosion so far in the first week of the playoffs, with teams recording just 102.0 PPG through two games each — the lowest since the 2016 playoffs (99.8 PPG), and nearly eight PPG less than last year's 109.6 average.

Already, 15 teams — including four that have won — have failed to reach 100 points in a game. That happened 19 times over last year's first round. Similar to the last two months of the regular season, the lack of whistles seems to be benefiting defenses. Teams have been called for just 18.8 fouls per game, the lowest in NBA history.

It's reasonable that