What Does In The Paint Mean In Basketball? | Explained

It appears nowadays almost every player in the league has a nickname while on top of that basketball terms seem to be growing every year and are not actually a saying or made up but are in fact a statistic such as in the paint.

What does in the paint mean in basketball? The term in the paint means the area that is the basketball key, this rectangular shape that is 15 in length by 12 feet in width. It is usually a solid color painted area on the hard wood court and is the location for players to score high percentage shots. The statistic tied to it for the in the paint term is called points in the paint.

You may hear commentators use this phrase occasionally, points in the paint is a measure of how well a team is scoring from inside the painted area. There are many advantages to this statistic.Coaches build playbooks to get their big men the ball in the painted area in scoring position, this is an effective way to get high-percentage shots and easy baskets. Coaches will acknowledge this stat at halftime and report how well they are doing as a team compared to their opponent.

The other factor to consider about the term points in the paint is that this is the location of the key area and the rule as we known to the key is you are only allowed 3 seconds or its a violation and turnover in possession. The violation is called 3 seconds in the key. If a player is in the paint that player can not be there for more than 3 seconds unless a shot is attempted, which will reset their time in the key.

The dimensions of the paint is as follows 15 by 12 ft length times width, in meters 4.6 (L) x 3.7 (W). These dimensions start from underneath the basket from the baseline to the free-throw line. You can park a midsize car in the key.

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How Are Points In The Paint Calculated

Points in the paint are calculated simply by the number of points scored in the key area. On made baskets the count his added by 2 points. Your team scored 10 points in the paint, which would have been 5 baskets. This includes layups and dunks also.

Points attempted in the paint is also a statistic that measures the number of shots in the paint. This is a clear indication if you are settling for shots instead of attempting high percentage attempts in the painted area.

Not always is the painted area painted sometimes it is the area outside the key and inside the 3-point line that is painted while the key is the same color as the natural hardwood court.

Another term used similar to point in the paint is hard in the paint. It isn’t a statistic but a term going into the paint heavily guarded and congested usually a penetration layup dunk attempt you want to go hard in the paint due to the potential contact that is involved when you hear the phrase hard in the paint expect a lot of contact. Going hard in the paint so to speak would fall under point in the paint.

That concludes the article I hope you learned something new today, feel free to look around and check out some more articles, I update the site quite often so be sure to check back soon.