Crosseyed and Painless

I have to admit I was completely overwhelmed by yesterday’s trade deadline madness. I would guess that this was not the busiest or even the most signficant deadline day in NBA history, but with the trades of Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams earlier in the week it sure feels like everything has changed. Reading through various blogs today it seems like the reset button has been hit for many teams.

A total of 50 players were traded this week. 441 different players have seen at least a minute of game time this season, which means 12.2% of the active players in the league changed teams over the last five days. This doesn’t even include the upcoming wave of buyouts and signings. An incredible 21 of the 30 teams in the NBA either acquired or unloaded a player through a trade. In addition to those 50 players being moved, 10 1st round draft picks and 4 second round draft picks changed hands.

We aren’t talking about just Chucky Atkins role players here either. 22 of those 50 players were former lottery picks. Those 50 players have a total of 16 All-Star Game appearances, 10 NCAA Championships, 3 NBA Championships, 2 Olympic Gold Medals and 1 NBA Finals MVP among them.

I also totalled up some of the statistics for all the players traded. I then calculated what percentage of the league total that represented.

Essentially 10% of everything changed hands in the NBA over the past five days.

If you feel like you’re back to square one with a lot of teams, you’re not alone. You spend four months doing your best to learn the tendencies, weakness and strengths of teams around the league and a huge portion of it goes out the window overnight. It’s an exciting challenge, but it’s a strange place to be, feeling like the season is starting over in late February.

Last Night’s Numbers – 2/25/11

This is Last Night’s Numbers, a daily feature where we run through the NBA games from the night before, highlighting one or two numbers I found particularly interesting from each game. All the stats are from Hoopdata’s box scores, which contain some additional advanced stats not available in traditional box scores.

Chicago 93 – Miami 89

• Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer combined for 24 shots, the same as Derrick Rose. Rose made 9, Boozer and Deng combined to make 14. They also added 19 rebounds and 7 assists.
• Chris Bosh was 1 of 18 on the night. He went 1 of 12 on shots from outside of 10ft.
• Miami recorded and assists on just 37.5% of their made baskets. As a team they had 12 assists and 12 turnovers for the game.

Denver 89 – Boston 75

• As if they were trying to prove to Danny Ainge how much they would miss Kendrick Perkins the Celtics grabbed just 42.3% of the available rebounds with an ORR of just 6.3%.
• New Nugget Wilson Chandler scored 16 points on a 74.3 TS% in 26 minutes. He knocked down 3 of 4 three pointers and grabbed 5 rebounds.
• The Celtics really struggled to make an outside shot. They were just 13 of 44 on shots from outside of 15ft.

365 Days Of Basketball

This is a short, self-serving post to mark the first birthday of Hickory High and my one year anniversary writing about basketball. Here’s a quote from my Statement of Purpose, the very first thing I put up on this blog:

Let me begin by saying that I recognize and freely admit the self-indulgent nature of this undertaking. To my knowledge, no one has ever expressed the slightest desire to hear or read any of my opinions about basketball. Despite being a passionate fan, I am utterly unqualified as a basketball analyst. Despite my bachelor’s degree I am a barely proficient writer.

I’ve had some success in the past year but I still feel largely the same way about my qualifications. I started this blog as a way to help myself learn more about the game I love so much, by making myself analyze and support my opinions in a way I never did by just screaming at the television. In that regard it’s been extremely successful. I now understand why Troy Murphy looked terrific by Wins Produced numbers last season and awful according to Adjusted Plus/Minus. (I apologize to everyone I sent emails to a year and a half ago asking them to look into what I thought was a mind-blowing paradox).

Thank you to Bethlehem Shoals, Ken Drews, Dan Filowitz, Zach Harper, Zach Lowe, Henry Abbott, Kelly Dwyer and many others at SBNation, the TrueHoop Network, and other wonderful blogs for reading my work and thinking enough of it to share it with their readers. Thank you to Josh Dhani, Tom Lewis, David Berri, Paul Gotham and Rob Mahoney for giving me an opportunity to contribute to their sites and share my writing with a wider audience. Thanks to my wife for her endless patience, willingness to become a sounding board for my esoteric ideas, and her consistent support. But mostly thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read anything I’ve written here at Hickory High and even leave a comment or two. I’ve learned so much over the past year and a great deal of it is due to the interactions I’ve had with readers and the tremendously talented and gracious NBA blogging community.

It turns out there are a few people who are interested in hearing my opinions on basketball and for that I am extremely grateful. I look forward to continuing to grow both my own skills and this site. My statement of purpose needs an update and so does Hickory-High itself. Stay tuned for some exciting developments over the next year!

Thanks for everything!
Ian

The Price of Everything, The Value of Nothing

I am well aware this post has very little significance with all the trades that have taken place over the past few days.

Last week Amir Johnson made Bill Simmons’ list of the 25 worst contracts in the league. The 5 year – 34 million dollar contract he signed this summer was ranked by Simmons at #20. I know, as with almost everything Simmons writes, fans with opposing opinions around the country are firing off angry emails to the Sports Guy about the perceived slights to their own favorite players. Today I’m going to take up the defense of Amir Johnson.

As a starting point for comparison, I put together a list of all the power forwards (or C/PF or SF/PF) in the league making at least $5 million this season, Johnson’s salary for 2010-2011. I came up with 41 names:

If you’re looking at that list saying, “Exactly! Amir Johnson is about the 41st best power forward in the league and he’s being paid five million dollars this season!” then you sir don’t know Amir Johnson. Let me introduce you. The table below shows some of Johnson’s numbers from this season.

Hopefully his scoring efficiency and rebounding numbers will pop out at you. There are some impressive numbers, but nothing to suggest frontcourt dominance. So how does he compare to the other power forwards with equal or larger salaries this season? This next table has the same categories but shows you his rank out of the 41 power forwards listed above.

In only three of these categories does he stack up in the bottom half of this group. He doesn’t score much, mostly because he doesn’t take many shots. He doesn’t play a lot of minutes because he fouls a ton. However when he is on the floor he’s among the most productive players on this list.

His Usage Rate is low, just 15.75%, but he is among the most efficient offensive players on this list. He has the top individual ORtg. and the second highest TS%, trailing only Dirk Nowitzki. Despite his low usage rate, his team benefits hugely from his efficiency. The Raptors’ ORtg. is 6.2 points higher with Johnson on the floor.

Although it’s not often utilized, he has surprising versatility on offense. Roughly 60% of his shots come at the rim which means 40% of his shots come away from the rim. Although he doesn’t have a reputation as a “stretch four,” Johnson is shooting above the league average from every area of the floor except three pointers, where he’s attempted just one on the season. He is shooting 42% on 16-23ft. jumpers, well above the league average of 39.8%.

Turning to defense, Johnson is one of only 5 players out of these 41 who average at least a steal and a block per 36 minutes. His individual DRtg. is not overly impressive this season. However, he’s making a defensive impact on a horrible defensive team. The Raptors’ DRtg. is 3 points better with Johnson on the floor.

I understand that any evaluation of Johnson’s contract has to focus on more than just this season. The deal he signed with Toronto will keep him under contract until the 2014-2015 season, at which point his salary will be seven million dollars. I’d like to point out that at the end of that contract he will only be 28 years old. Since this is his sixth season in the league, it’s easy to forget that Johnson is so young. He’s still just 23, turning 24 on May 1st.

Johnson has been in the league six seasons but has played just 4,743 minutes. That’s just slightly more minutes than Tyreke Evans or Stephen Curry have played in a season and a half. Now obviously he’s played a smaller amount of minutes because he entered the league so raw and has had trouble staying on the floor because of fouls. My point is simply that he still has a lot of room for development and is far from a finished product.

Johnson has only really played significant minutes over the past three seasons. The table below shows his improvement in several statistical categories over that time span.

There are some areas where his development has stagnated or regressed. DRtg. and ORB% would be two areas of concern. However, his MPG, Pts/36, DRB%, Stl/36, PF/36, ORtg., WP/48 and PER have all shown a consistent pattern of improvement over the past three seasons. He has continued to get better and with his age there is no reason to thank that pattern will suddenly come to an abrupt halt.

I would guess that Simmons’ would counter with an argument that the Raptors could have had him for a much smaller contract. In addition there is an argument to be made that this contract will look worse under the new collective bargaining agreement and that the Raptors created a log jam at power forward with a very similar rookie in Ed Davis. An ESPN report from early July quoted Johnson’s agent (nororiously unreliable sources) as saying Johnson had interest from four different teams. This may just be blowing smoke and the Raptors probably did overpay for Johnson. Still, I don’t think this qualifies his contract as anything approaching one of the 25 worst in the NBA. As far as the logjam is concerned, are any teams opposed to have effective depth in the frontcourt?

For between 5 and 7 million a year, over the next five season, the Raptors have locked up a very young, developing, athletic big man with no off the court issues or significant injury problems. They get a player with plenty of upside who will be in his chronologic prime throughout the contract. That player is already an elite power forward with regards to offensive efficiency and offensive rebounding, not to mention being a solid defender and very good on the defensive glass. I’m sure I could think of at least 25 worse ways to spend 35 million dollars as a general manager.

Last Night’s Numbers – 2/23/11

This is Last Night’s Numbers, a daily feature where we run through the NBA games from the night before, highlighting one or two numbers I found particularly interesting from each game. All the stats are from Hoopdata’s box scores, which contain some additional advanced stats not available in traditional box scores.

Indiana 113 – Washington 96

• Indiana won this game in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. In those two quarters combined they were +27.
• With a FTR of 0.511 the Pacers gave themselves a 14 point advantage at the free throw line.
• John Wall just missed a triple-double with 8 rebounds to go along with his 10 assists and 15 points. However it took him 15 shots to garner those 15 points. He also committed 5 fouls, turned the ball over 6 times and was a -29 in his 38 minutes on the floor.

Charlotte 114 – Toronto 101

• Jerryd Bayless had a double-double without making a single shot from the field. He had 10 assists and made 11 of 12 at the free throw line while going 0 of 4 from the field.
• Charlotte posted a FTR of 0.519, giving themselves a 13 point advantage at the free throw line.
• Perhaps inspired by Bayless, Gerald Wallace scored 20 points for the Bobcats while making just 3 of 6 field goals. He went 14 of 15 at the free throw line.

Houston 108 – Detroit 100

• With a FTR of 0.329 the Rockets gave themselves a 12 point advantage at the free throw line.
• Patrick Patterson had a huge game for the Rockets, scoring 20 points on a 72.8 TS% all in 22 minutes. He went 5 of 5 on shots at the rim and added 5 rebounds, 4 at the offensive end.
• Detroit turned the ball over on just 8.9% of their possessions.

Miami 117 – Sacramento 97

• Miami turned the ball over on just 9.5% of their possessions. LeBron James had 3, no one else had more than 1.
• The Heat grabbed 55.2% of available rebounds. Wade, Bosh and James all had at least 8 rebounds in the game.
• DeMarcus Cousins was 3 of 14 for the Kings. He attempted only two shots at the rim missing both. Altogether he was 1 of 7 from inside of 10ft.

Milwaukee 94 – Minnesota 88

• Kevin Love scored 20 points on a 71.6 TS%. He also added 17 rebounds, 6 assists and just one turnover in 33 minutes.
• Brandon Jennings scored 27 points on a 60.1 TS%. He was just 7 of 17 from the field including 2 of 8 on three pointers, but went 11 of 12 at the free throw line.
• If you like missed layups than this was your game. Both teams combined to make just 19 of 39 shots at the rim.

Oklahoma City 111 – L.A. Clippers 88

• Blake Griffin scored 28 points on a 62.3 TS%. He also had 11 rebounds and 8 assists. The rest of the team combined to score just 60 points, grab 22 rebounds and hand out 12 assists.
• Both teams had similar FTRs, 0.403 for the Clippers and 0.410 for the Thunder. However the Clippers shot just 58.7% from the free throw line, giving the Thunder an 11 point advantage.
• The Thunder turned the ball over on 7.4% of their possessions compared to 18.1% for the Clippers.

Denver 120 – Memphis 107

• The post-Melo era started with a bang for Denver. They shot 49.4% from the field and made 12 of 28 three pointers. They only turned the ball over on 13.9% of their possessions, compared to 20.8% for Memphis. With a FTR of 0.434 they also had a 7 point advantage at the free throw line.
• Tony Allen was terrific on the interior for Memphis. He was 8 of 12 on shots at the rim and went to the free throw line 14 times. He finished with 26 points on a 61.4 TS%.
• Ty Lawson had a strong game manning the point for Denver. He scored 21 points on a 61.0 TS%. He also added 7 assists, all of which went for layups or three pointers, 6 steals and was 7 of 10 on shots at the rim.

Boston 115 – Golden State 93

• Boston shot 55.6% from the field and knocked down 7 of 17 three pointers. They were also 23 of 28 on shots at the rim.
• Kevin Garnett led the way with 24 points on a 71.1 TS%. He also added 12 rebounds, 6 assists and just one turnover in 35 minutes.
• The Warriors made just 12 of 25 shots at the rim. Only four of their shots were blocked by Boston so I’m not sure what the excuse is for the other 9 missed layups.

L.A. Lakers 104 – Atlanta 80

• Atlanta shot just 36.6% from the field and went 1 of 15 on three pointers. The also grabbed just 37.3% of available rebounds.
• The Lakers were able to pound the Hawks without scoring much in the paint. The Lakers were just 11 of 22 on shots inside of 10ft. They were 19 of 40 on shots from outside of 15ft.
• With a FTR of 0.606 the Lakers gave themselves a 15 point advantage at the free throw line.

Expected Scoring: Team Update

As we head into the All-Star break I thought it would be a good time to look at Expected Scoring numbers at the team level. Expected Scoring is something we’ve looked at extensively for individual players but this is the first time this season we’re looking at teams as a whole.

In this case we take a team’s shot attempts from each area and multiply it by the expected point value for a shot from that area. We can then compare that to how many points a team actually score from each area to arrive at a point differential. Expected Scoring incorporates both a team’s shot selection and shooting accuracy to arrive at a measure of scoring efficiency relative to the league average. The expected point values I use for each shot (At Rim – 1.208, <10ft. – 0.856, 10-15ft. – 0.783, 16-23ft. – 0.801, 3PT – 1.081, FT – 0.759) were calculated by Albert Lyu of ThinkBlueCrew.

The table below shows the shot attempts, field goal percentage, expected points, actual points and point differential for each NBA team from each area of the floor. Here’s the link to the actual spreadsheet if you prefer that to an embedded photo.

So far this season, the top 5 offenses in terms of overall point differential are:

1. Dallas               +5.07
2. Miami               +4.84
3. Phoenix            +4.82
4. Boston               +4.48
5. San Antonio    +3.83

Last season’s league leader in point differential was Phoenix, by a wide margin, at +7.26. This number was mostly due to the 3.35 more points than expected they scored per game on three pointers. This season their point differential on three pointers has dropped to +1.05. As drastic as that drop was it’s been at least partially cancelled out by a huge increase in their point differential at the rim. This season they are +3.51 per game on shots at the rim, last season’s number was +1.55.

It’s amazing that Phoenix saw this much of a change despite losing Amare Stoudemire. Accomplishing this has been a team effort. Every player currently on the Suns’ roster except Zabian Dowdell, Channing Frye and Earl Barron has a FG% above the league average on shots at the rim. The Suns aren’t doing it with isolations but with efficient ball movement. They have the 4th highest Ast% on shots at the rim.

So far this season, the bottom 5 teams in terms of overall point differential are:

1. Milwaukee         -5.35
2. Cleveland           -4.35
3. Charlotte            -3.69
4. Sacramento       -3.60
5. L.A. Clippers      -2.55 

By and large these five teams struggle everywhere. Milwaukee, Cleveland and Charlotte all have negative point differentials from every area of the floor. Both Los Angeles and Sacramento have a positive point differential at the rim (thank you DeMarcus Cousins and Blake Griffin) but are in the negatve range from everywhere else on the floor.

There are still a few areas within this mess which stand out in particular. Milwaukee is horrible finishing at the rim. I mean absolutely wretched. Their point differential at the rim is -1.22. The next closest team, Cleveland at -0.43, is almost a full point better than the Bucks. To put their awful performance further in perspective they are one of only 4 teams who have a negative point differential on shots at the rim. In stark contrast to the numbers for Phoenix we discussed above, just two players for Milwaukee, Keyon Dooling and Garrett Temple have a FG% above the league average on shots at the rim.

Besides just looking at the best and worst offenses, several other unique features of each team’s offensive identity show up in these numbers.

• At +2.28 Oklahoma City has the tenth best overall point differential. By far the biggest factor in their overall point differential is the +2.00 they post at the free throw line. Without the quantity and quality of their free throw shooting they would be a completely average offensive team.
• Dallas leads the league with a point differential of +5.07. A significant portion of that comes from their +1.90 point differential on 16-23ft. jumpers. You can chalk that up to the perimeter shooting of Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki who combine to take 10.7 shots per game from that distance and shoot 51% and 48% respectively.
• Miami is the only team in the league with a positive point differential from every area of the floor. Wade, Bosh and James carry the team’s differential from inside the arc. All three however, shoot below the league average from beyond the arc. They can thank Eddie House, James Jones and Mike Miller for their team’s positive point differential on three pointers.

I haven’t updated individual Expected Scoring numbers since January 16th, but will hopefully have some new numbers up next week. At the Expected Scoring – Statistics and Analysis page you can find links to all the available data from this season and last as well as Expected Scoring profiles for about a dozen players.

Last Night’s Numbers – 2/18/11

This is Last Night’s Numbers, a daily feature where we run through the NBA games from the night before, highlighting one or two numbers I found particularly interesting from each game. All the stats are from Hoopdata’s box scores, which contain some additional advanced stats not available in traditional box scores.

Chicago 109 – San Antonio 99

• Derrick Rose had 42 points on a 68.5 TS%. He had 8 assists, 5 rebounds and just a single turnover in 39 minutes. He used 43.2% of the Bulls’ possessions in the game.
• Derrick Rose and Tony Parker are two masters of dribble penetration. They combined to go 13 of 16 on shots at the rim.
• Chicago controlled the glass, grabbing 58.5% of available rebounds. Tim Duncan had 9 rebounds for the Spurs, no one else had more than 4.

Dallas 112 – Phoenix 106

• The Mavericks missed just one shot at the rim. They finished the game 17 of 18.
• Dirk Nowitzki scored 35 points on an 84.8 TS%. He was 3 of 3 on three pointers and 8 of 11 on long two pointers.
• Jason Kidd had 12 assists, 9 of which went for layups or three pointers.

Bounce Back

Heading into the All-Star break, no one needs a rebound quite like the Utah Jazz. (I’m sure you groaned reading that awful pun. Just know that I groaned writing it as well). The Jazz have won just 4 of their last 17 games and are tied with Memphis for the 8th playoff spot in the West. I won’t speculate at the exact reasons, but the team’s struggles certainly played a role in the decision of head coach Jerry Sloan to resign in the middle of his 23rd season leading the Jazz. Things haven’t improved much since his resignation, with Utah losing their first three games under new head coach Tyrone Corbin.

The Jazz have made the playoffs in each of the last four seasons, winning 50 games in three of the four. Both of those streaks appear to be in jeopardy. I looked at their numbers for the Offensive and Defensive Four Factors over the past five seasons to see what, if anything, has changed about their statistical profile this year.

The Jazz have been remarkably consistent in most of these categories over the past five seasons. The only categoies in which they aren’t in the top half of the league this season are DRB% and Opponent’s FT/FGA ratio. They’ve been at the bottom of the league in Opponent’s FT/FGA ratio for the last half-decade and still been successful, so we’ll set that aside for now.

Other than the 2009 season when Carlos Boozer played in only 37 games, the Jazz have been a top 10 team in defensive rebounding over this entire stretch. This season they have fallen all the way to 27th. The other disturbing trend shows up in their offensive rebounding. Although it’s not as dramatic as the change at the other end of the floor, the Jazz have gone from a top 5 offensive rebounding team from 2007-2009, to the middle of the pack over the past two seasons.

So where are these rebounding problems coming from?

Defensive Rebounding

Roster changes and distribution of minutes are big components in the Jazz’s difficulties rebounding at this end of the floor. The table below shows the minutes played and DRB% for the players who have played frontcourt minutes for the Jazz this season and last season.

Looking at this table, two large problems appear. The first is replacing Carlos Boozer with Al Jefferson. The second is the injuries to Mehmet Okur.

Al Jefferson is on pace to basically replace Carlos Boozer’s minutes from last season and is nowhere near as effective on the defensive glass. Jefferson’s DRB% is his lowest of the past five seasons and is about two percentage points under his career average. I don’t have an explanation for this decline other than to point that he’s been largely healthy this season and so effort and a new defensive system would appear to be the most likely culprits. Often when a player changes teams and sees a decline in his rebounding production, diminishing returns is playing a role. I think we can rule that out since Jefferson played with Kevin Love, one of the best in the league on the defensive glass, last season.

The second problem is Okur. Okur has played just 168 minutes over 13 games this season. He played the third most minutes in the Jazz’s front-court last season and was their second best defensive rebounder. Okur’s minutes have been divided up between Kirilenko, Millsap, and Elson; none of whom have been able to match what Okur accomplished on the defensive glass.

Offensive Rebounding

Including all players who have played at least 200 minutes, Millsap has led the team in ORB% in each of the last four seasons. This season he will likely be 4th on the team behind Kyrylo Fesenko, Jeremy Evans and Al Jefferson. This is not just because of improvement or new opportunities on the part of those players. It’s because Millsap’s ORB% is a career low 7.3% this season, less than half of the 15.1% he posted his rookie year.

Millsap was 2nd in the nation in ORB% his senior year of college at 18.1%. In his junior season he ranked 7th in the nation in ORB% at 15.8%. He was drafted in the mid-second round by the Jazz and had to earn his roster spot and minutes with energy and tough work on the glass. With increased offensive resposibilities the Jazz no longer ask him to focus primarily on rebounding. An good way to illustrate this is by looking at the relationship between his shot attempts away from the rim and his ORB%.

Over the past five seasons Millsap’s offensive development has led to an increase in the amount of time he spends away from the basket. More time away from the basket means less high-quality opportunities for offensive rebounds. This is not the only reason his ORB% has declined but it appears to be a major factor.

This season the Jazz don’t have a single player with an ORB% over 10.0%. This is the first season over the past five that’s been the case. They have two other players with potential to surpass that mark, Jeremy Evans and Kyrylo Fesenko. Evans has an ORB% of 8.7% this season. Fesenko’s is 9.8%. However, they’ve combined to play just 577 minutes.

The Jazz don’t have much in the way of trade assets and it doesn’t appear that rebounding help is in the way in the form of new players. The Jazz could certainly make the playoffs without doing anything to address their rebounding woes. That plan would be just fine by the San Antonio Spurs. To fix the problem the Jazz may need to look at adjusting their rotations to find more minutes for productive rebounders like Fesenko and Evans. Those two players certainly have other limitations on the court. However, finding minutes for them to work the glass as well as improve on their other weaknesses over the last third of the season may be the only shot the Jazz have for advancing beyond the first round of the playoffs.

Last Night’s Numbers – 2/17/11

This is Last Night’s Numbers, a daily feature where we run through the NBA games from the night before, highlighting one or two numbers I found particularly interesting from each game. All the stats are from Hoopdata’s box scores, which contain some additional advanced stats not available in traditional box scores.

Orlando 101 – Washington 76

• Washington turned in an absolutely miserable offensive performance. They shot 35.0% from the floor, 65.3% from the free throw line and 23.1% on three pointers. They turned the ball over on 16.0% of their possessions and recorded just 8 assists for the game. All in all it worked out to an ORtg. of 80.9.
• Dwight Howard scored 32 points on an 80.6 TS%. He was 10 of 10 on shots at the rim, 8 of 11 at the free throw line and added 10 rebounds, all in just 29 minutes.

Miami 103 – Toronto 95

• Two nights ago LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh combined for 90 points. Last night they only managed 76. They did it on 25 of 52 from the field and 27 of 32 at the free throw line. They also combined for 26 rebounds and 11 assists.
• With a FTR if 0.507, the Heat had a 12 point advantage at the free throw line.
• Andrea Bargnani scored 38 points on a 68.4 TS%. The rest of the Raptors combined to shoot 21 of 61.

Boston 94 – New Jersey 80

• With a FTR of 0.542, Boston gave themselves an 18 point advantage at the free throw line. They made twice as many free throws as New Jersey attempted. Paul Pierce led the way going 10 of 13.
• Pierce scored 31 points on a 65.3 TS%. In addition to his performance at the free throw line he was 7 of 8 on shots at the rim and added 5 rebounds, 2 steals and a block.
• New Jersey shot just 9 of 19 on shots at the rim.

Cleveland 104 – L.A. Lakers 99

• Kobe Bryant had an awful game. He grabbed 12 rebounds but also turned the ball over 7 times, shot 8 of 24 from the field, 1 of 6 on three pointers and was just 2 of 13 on all shots longer than 15ft.
• Ramon Sessions was the star for Cleveland was 32 points on a 72.2 TS%. Sessions also added 8 assists, 6 of which went for layups or three pointers.
• Pau Gasol worked his tail off to keep the Lakers in the game. Gasol had 30 points on a 70.9 TS% and added 20 rebounds, 10 of which were offensive.

Detroit 115 – Indiana 109 (OT)

• Both teams shot better than 50% but Indiana turned the ball over on 15.6% of their possessions compared to just 9.6% for the Pistons.
• Tayshaun Prince scored 25 points on a 70.4 TS%. He also added 11 rebounds, 2 assists and just one turnover in 39 minutes.
• Danny Granger and Roy Hibbert combined for 57 points on 23 of 39 from the field. They also combined for 14 rebounds and 6 assists.

New York 102 – Atlanta 90

• New York had a modest FTR of 0.266, but it dwarfed Atlanta’s 0.107. For the game Atlanta attempted just 9 free throws and made just 5.
• Landry Fields had a super-efficient game for the Knicks. Fields scored 11 points on 4 of 5 shooting. He also added 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and just one turnover.
• Atlanta was 11 of 22 on three pointers. Mike Bibby led the way making 5 of 7.

L.A. Clippers 98 – Minnesota 90

• The Clippers totalled 25 assists which was 69.5% of their made baskets. 4 different Clippers had at least 5 assists.
• Minnesota had 16 assists and also 16 turnovers. Only 3 Timberwolves, Martell Webster, Sebastian Telfair and Corey Brewer had more assists than turnovers.
• The Clippers were just 6 of 26 on three pointers. Randy Foye and Baron Davis combined to go 3 of 13.

Dallas 116 – Sacramento 100

• DeMarcus Cousins had a difficult game against Dallas’ long front line. Cousins did grab 12 rebounds and score 16 points but he turned the ball over 7 times, was 6 of 19 from the floor, and just 3 of 10 on shots inside of 10ft.
• Dallas saw the return of Rodrigue Beaubois from foot surgery. Beaubois played 21 minutes, scoring 13 points and adding 6 assists. Beaubois was 5 of 7 on shots at the rim and all 6 of his assists went for layups or three pointers.
• Dallas made 13 of 26 three pointers on the night. Jason Kidd led the way making 6 of 7.

Philadelphia 114 – Houston 105

• The 76ers shot 55.2% for the game. 7 of the 9 76ers who played scored in double figures.
• Kyle Lowry scored 36 points on a 97.6 TS%. Lowry was 9 of 9 on two pointers, including 7 of 7 at the rim, and 6 of 9 on three pointers.
• The 76ers controlled the glass grabbing 55.6% of available rebounds. Three different 76ers had double figure rebounds.

Denver 94 – Milwaukee 87

• Both teams did a great job on the defensive glass. Together the Bucks and Nuggets grabbed just 6 offensive rebounds in the whole game.
• Andrew Bogut was just 1 of 7 from the field but grabbed 20 rebounds and blocked 5 shots.
• The Bucks were 3 of 23 on three pointers. Carlos Delfino and Brandon Jennings were both 0 of 6.

Golden State 107 – Utah 100

• Monta Ellis was the star for the Warriors, scoring 35 points on a 65.4 TS%. Ellis was 8 of 9 on shots at the rim and 6 of 8 on long two pointers.
• Deron Williams had 11 assists for th Jazz, 7 of which went for layups. He also turned the ball over 5 times.

Portland 103 – New Orleans 96

• LaMarcus Aldridge scored 34 points on a 77.4 TS%. He was 11 of 13 from inside of 10ft. and also added 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
• Andre Miller had 7 assists for the TrailBlazers, all of which went for layups or three pointers.

Last Night’s Numbers – 2/16/11

This is Last Night’s Numbers, a daily feature where we run through the NBA games from the night before, highlighting one or two numbers I found particularly interesting from each game. All the stats are from Hoopdata’s box scores, which contain some additional advanced stats not available in traditional box scores.

Miami 110 – Indiana 103

• Miami got 90 of their 110 points from Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James. They were a combined 35 of 65 from the field and 17 of 21 at the free throw line.
• Indiana’s big three of Darren Collison, Danny Granger and Roy Hibbert were not nearly as productive. They combined for 39 points on 13 of 40 from the field and 12 of 17 at the free throw line.
• Indiana had 8 of their shots blocked by the Heat and were just 15 of 30 on shots at the rim.

Chicago 106 – Charlotte 94

• Derrick Rose had 13 assists for the Bulls, 6 of which went for layups or three pointers.
• Gerald Henderson had a huge game for the Bobcats, scoring 22 points on a 77.0 TS%. He was 6 of 9 from the field and 10 of 12 at the free throw line.
• Carlos Boozer finished the game with 16 points on a 71.4 TS%. However he was just 5 of 11 on shots inside of 10ft.

Oklahoma City 126 – Sacramento 96

• Seven different players scored in double figures for the Thunder. They shot 50% for the game, a number which would have been even more impressive if Kevin Durant hadn’t gone 5 of 18.
• DeMarcus Cousins scored 21 points on a 58.5 TS%. He also added 13 rebounds, 5 of which were offensive.
• The Kings shot 40.3% for the game and were just 8 of 38 on shots from outside of 10ft.

Memphis 102 – Philadelphia 91

• Memphis turned the ball over on just 7.6% of their possessions, compared to 18.5% for Philadelphia. No Memphis played turned the ball over more than once.
• Zach Randolph scored 21 points with 10 rebounds, 7 assists and no turnovers. 4 of his rebounds were offensive and all 7 of his assists led to layups or three pointers.
• Philadelphia shot 44.0% for the game but were just 13 of 49 on shots that didn’t come at the rim.

Phoenix 102 – Utah 101

• No boxscore available as of 6:45 AM Mountain Time

Golden State 102 – New Orleans 89

• No boxscore available as of 6:45 AM Mountain Time