Phoenix Suns coach Mike D’Antoni believes playing faster will solve any of his team’s ills. And three full seasons of this style has worked wonders in the desert: three division titles, an average of 59 victories, and two trips to the conference finals.

Don Nelson’s Golden State Warriors, however, played even faster this season, and their first-round upset of the top-seeded and 67-victory Dallas Mavericks treated a nation of hoop fans to a brand of basketball based on a blur of run, shoot, run, dunk, run, run, run, and above all else, don’t blink. Ditto for the Denver Nuggets, who sprinted on the same track in 2007.

Are more teams ready to join the Suns, Warriors and Nuggets in the NBA’s pace parade? The short answer is yes, although how quickly and how committed they are remains unknown. But Hall-of-Famer Bob Cousy, for one, is rooting for more change.

“Even if you don’t agree with the philosophy that transition should be your primary offense, it is entertainment,” said Cousy, 78, who took Red Auerbach’s vaunted fast break with the Boston Celtics to legendary heights. “And we well know, that’s what the NBA is all about. It’s about selling seats and entertaining people. And nothing, nothing turns people off more than a slow-down, walk-the-ball-up-the-floor, fierce defensive battle with guys climbing all over each other and no scoring.”

With the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers squaring off in the Finals, which begin Thursday, a look at the state of the NBA is in order. Commissioner David Stern is quick to point out that the league set attendance records for the third consecutive season. At the same time, however, TV ratings continue to plummet, although that dilemma exists among all sports as fans enjoy an increasing number of choices of what to watch, and when.

While the NBA has its share of issues to deal with — most notably off-the-court incidents and their impact on the league’s image — it is, of course, the product on the court that will ultimately determine its success. A majority of fans crave a quicker game, one that showcases the remarkable athleticism of the world’s greatest athletes. Those same fans are fed up with the league’s traditional plodding post-season half-court style, where more fouls and violations go uncalled as the game slows even more and defensive intensity picks up.

Cousy thinks one party is responsible for slowing down the game — which on occasion hardly resembles the racetrack of his playing days, most notably in 1962, when teams averaged a record 118.8 points per game — and that same party holds the key to infusing the game with additional entertainment.

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“Coaches today like to control everything,” said, Cousy, the showman whose on-court flash helped transform the league from near-bankrupt to a household word. “We wouldn’t be talking now if I had played for one of these walk-the-ball-up-the-floor coaches, who jump up and hold fingers up and let everybody know how smart they are at orchestrating the offense. In basketball, you need structure, but it is basically a game of free flow. The coach obviously puts down the structure, and through endless practice gives them all the options that are necessary. But once the game begins, it should be left in the hands of talented players to go with the flow.”

Pace factor — an approximate measure of a team’s number of possessions in a game, or how fast that team plays — has decreased for the past 34 years (see chart). Most recently, however, the decline has leveled off, even showing signs of rebounding. All tinkering by the league in recent years — including an emphasis on eliminating contact (or hand-checking) on the perimeter, the restructuring of illegal defense rules to allow for zone defenses, the eight-second backcourt violation — has had minimal impact, perhaps merely opening the door for innovation, for a shift in philosophy. Real change, however, won’t happen unless coaches bust through that door.

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