Interesting NBA Stats

Here are some league statistics that I found interesting going into the NBA playoffs. These are teams ranked in order offesnively and defensively with points per shot. The adjusted FG percentage is weighted for 3 pt. shoots.


I also included some of the top individual players ranked by this category.


I don’t think that the Mavericks are going to do it this year. I don’t think you can win with a defense that is as poor as theirs is. Certainly the Spurs and the Kings look like strong contenders at least. These teams have got to match Shaq and Kobe output. In the East how about a battle between Detroit and New Jersey?


Offense


1 Dallas 105.5 1.25 .508

2 San Antonio 96.7 1.25 .489

3 Utah 96.1 35.1 1.24 .475

4 Sacramento 104.3 1.22 .495

5 Detroit 93.6 1.22 .493

6 Milwaukee 97.4 1.21 .507

7 LA Lakers 100.8 1.21 .497

8 Orlando 100.8 1.20 .494

9 Seattle 97.5 1.20 .505

10 Indiana 96.6 1.20 .475

11 Portland 96.5 1.19 .485

12 Cleveland 95.0 1.19 .477

13 Minnesota 99.4 1.18 .490

14 LA Clippers 95.5 1.17 .474

15 Atlanta 94.0 1.17 .474

16 Boston 96.4 1.17 .473

17 Charlotte 93.6 1.17 .465

18 New Jersey 96.3 1.16 .476

19 Philadelphia 90.9 1.16 .451

20 Houston 92.9 1.15 .468

21 New York 91.3 1.15 .467

22 Golden State 97.5 1.14 .449

23 Washington 92.7 1.14 .463

24 Phoenix 95.5 1.13 .473

25 Memphis 89.8 34.7 79.9 .434 4.1 13.2 .306 16.4 23.2 .705 1.12 .460

26 Miami 87.2 1.12 .463

27 Chicago 88.9 1.12 .453

28 Toronto 90.9 1.11 .459

29 Denver 92.0 1.10 .453


Defense

Team, Points per game, Points per shot, Adjusted FG percentage


1 San Antonio 90.9 1.10 .453

2 Sacramento 96.4 1.11 .465

3 Philadelphia 89.1 1.12 .458

4 New Jersey 91.8 1.13 .457

5 LA Lakers 93.6 1.14 .451

6 LA Clippers 95.7 1.14 .474

7 Detroit 91.9 1.15 .472

8 Charlotte 92.8 1.15 .463

9 Houston 97.5 1.16 .491

10 Miami 88.6 1.16 .456

11 Milwaukee 97.4 1.16 .474

12 Indiana 96.8 1.17 .469

13 Memphis 97. 1.17 .484

14 Seattle 94.2 1.17 .482

15 Washington 94.0 1.18 .482

16 Boston 94.4 1.18 .466

17 Minnesota 96.0 1.18 .481

18 Phoenix 96.1 1.18 .476

19 Portland 93.7 1.18 .490

20 Toronto 92.1 1.18 .472

21 Orlando 99.0 1.19 .486

22 New York 95.5 1.19 .478

23 Atlanta 97.8 1.21 .493

24 Cleveland 98.0 1.21 .492

25 Golden State 102.9 1.21 .488

26 Dallas 101.3 .486

27 Chicago 97.5 1.23 .497

28 Denver 98.4 1.23 .494

29 Utah 95.1 1.26 .484


Top 50 Individuals on Offense


1 S. O'Neal, LAL 1.48 .579

2 Brent Barry, SEA 1.48 .616

3 Elton Brand, LAC 1.45 .530

4 D. Mutombo, PHI 78 1.43 .496

5 Reggie Miller, IND 75 1.42 .548

6 D. Robinson, SAS 77 1.42 .507

7 John Stockton, UTH 1.42 .537

8 Dirk Nowitzki, DAL 1.41 .532

9 Brad Miller, IND 1.40 .496

10 Tim Duncan, SAS 1.38 .503

11 A. Mourning, MIA 1.37 .514

12 E. Campbell, CHA 1.36 .488

13 R. Patterson, POR 1.35 .522

14 Steve Nash, DAL 1.35 .558

15 Pau Gasol, MEM 1.34 .517

16 P. Stojakovic, SAC 1.34 .545

17 Paul Pierce, BOS 1.33 .506

18 C. Williamson, DET 1.33 .512

19 Doug Christie, SAC 1.32 .521

20 D. Marshall, UTH 1.31 .536

21 Steve Smith, SAS 1.31 .536

22 Ray Allen, MIL 1.30 .554

23 Karl Malone, UTH 1.28 .460

24 Dale Davis, POR 1.28 .509

25 W. Szczerbiak, MIN 71.28 .545

26 Andre Miller, CLE 1.27 .459

27 S. Abdur-Rahim, ATL 1.27 .472

28 Kobe Bryant, LAL 1.26 .480

29 Wesley Person, CLE 1.25 .574

30 C. Billups, MIN 1.25 .500

31 Ricky Davis, CLE 1.24 .493

32 Anthony Mason, MIL 1.24 .497

33 Kenny Thomas, HOU 1.24 .481

34 Jason Terry, ATL 1.23 .499

35 Eddie Jones, MIA 1.23 .492

36 J. Stackhouse, DET 1.23 .433

37 D. Armstrong, ORL 1.23 .506

38 Rashard Lewis, SEA 1.23 .531

39 Vlade Divac, SAC 1.23 .468

40 Tracy McGrady, ORL 1.23 .483

41 Steve Francis, HOU 1.22 .450

42 Chris Webber, SAC 1.22 .494

43 Kevin Garnett, MIN 1.22 .483

44 Kurt Thomas, NYK 1.22 .494

45 Sam Cassell, MIL 1.22 .494

46 Darius Miles, LAC 1.20 .480

47 Vin Baker, SEA 1.20 .491

48 Rodney Rogers, BOS 1.20 .523

49 Allan Houston, NYK 1.20 .488

50 Chucky Atkins, DET 1.20 .548

Good info here Tom. Sacramento has figured out that defense will win it for them, they have played a lot more controlled game this year only breaking out at times into the big scoring. Further they have had so many blowouts this year I don't even know what to make of a lot of their defensive stats. The game against the Warriors a few days was very typical, they got a big lead early and then softened their defense as a result so the final defensive numbers might have been misleading. Lakers turn on the defense when they want to win and that of course is what makes them tough. People always want to say Shaq and Kobe win it for them, but no doubt about it if they make it 3 in a row it will be because their team defense is excellent. One of my theories on this is that most teams get overly excited to play them, especially at home. They get the biggest crowds for the Laker game and then their opponent gets caught up in the hype and tries to be heroes on offense taking a lot of hurried and wild shots. Lakers won't have quite this advantage come playoff time, teams will be playing more playoff basketball with defense being first. I keep saying it, you will see the zone emerge more because its too grueling to take the Shaq punishment game after game and still beat them.


An interesting though down the stretch. Will teams dog it to get more favorable matchups? What is the thinking of teams as far as who they want to play? From Lakers standpoint, clearly number 2 would be good (they seed #3, but it would work like #2) because they would get home court in round two. Even better if they can get Spurs in #4 because that would be Kings-Spurs and the two teams they would have the most trouble with would eliminate one or the other. Worse situation would be to finish #3 with Spurs getting #2. Two road series against their toughest matchups back to back and its highly unlikely the Kings would lose to the Mavs. Lakers already getting a break in that Seattle won't face them, for whatever reason that team owns them and in a 5 game series that would be rather scary for the Lakers. Otherwise Kings get it easiest because Jazz are the team everyone wishes they got round one. Looking at the schedule it appears they will get another break because Dallas has toughest finish so they could easily fall to #4. The way things fall could matter quite a bit. If Lakers have to beat Portland in one, Spurs without home court in two, and Kings on the road in three...that would be a route truly worthy of a champion. Every team gives the Lakers tough matchups because I think power forward defense is probably the weakest link for LA with Walker or whoever they throw out there and in that stretch you play the three toughest PF to stop. If any of these three teams figures out how to play an effective zone, basically would be box and one with someone chasing Kobe, the Lakers will have it tough. Fisher/Fox/Horry will again become the keys and those guys will have to play at the level they did last year, definitely not a sure thing. In any event I don't think the Lakers will be anything like they were last year. If they win the title they will lose at least 7 games getting there. I just can't see how anyone is laying under even money on this team to win it, but I have been told by some sources I have that they still get the dollars because people are afraid to bet anyone else. Kings at 5-1 are a decent value, but most places aren't offering that high as I only have seen one with that price. Wait until the seedings are figured and then I will reassess the situation.

Great post wildbill.


There’s no doubt in my mind that the Spurs and the Kings have more talent than the Lakers. There are three big obstacles for them which are Shaq, Kobe, and themselves.


About a potential Kings vs. Lakers matchup. I listened to an interview with Alvin Gentry, coach of the Clippers, and he stated that he thought that Vlade Divac provided a very competitive match up vs. Shaq. Also I think that Doug Christie provides an excellent matchup vs. Kobe. As you alluded to, who the heck on the Lakers is going to match up against Chris Webber. There is no doubt that there will be a lot of pressure on Webber to step up if these two teams meet. I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t respond but we’ll see. I also think that the match up of Stojakovic vs. Fox is very favorable to the Kings. The Bibby vs. Fisher matchup should be close but I think Bibby has the edge. I also think the Kings have a big edge in the players coming of the bench. Rick Adelman’s a good coach. I think Jackson will do his usual psyche job (it’s been effective) and the Kings will just have to deal with it. Really if Vlade, Webber and Christie play the way they have all year and the rest of the Kings play the way they have I see them winning the series. The Kings have played great this year but in all fairness their home record is so much better than anyone else’s it does make me wonder if they can win on the road if they have to. I think they can.


About a potential Spurs vs. Lakers match up. On paper the Spurs should match up well against the Lakers. Even though Shaq states that he hates the Admiral, the Admiral shouldn’t fare too badly against him. In last years playoff series Robinson actually did ok against him IMO. I don’t think the Spurs are as formidable an opponent as the Kings are but as I stated in another post some time ago, the Spurs certainly improved their team from last year. Obviously if they played each other Tim Duncan is going to have to step up and play the series he’s capable of playing. Last year Kobe had some huge games against the Spurs in their playoff series. Steve Smith certainly will have to step up and he does have the highest 3 pt. field goal percentage in the league. Also last year Fisher, Horry and Fox hurt the Spurs. If you look the Spurs have upgrade the match ups against these players so I don’t think it will be quite the same this year. Really when I look at the two teams I believe San Antonio’s better. IMO Jackson did one of his psyche jobs on the Spurs (saying that the Spurs championship was tainted do to the shortened season) but this year you would think that they know how to handle it and will be ready. I give the Spurs a lot of credit for addressing their needs in the off season. We’ll see what happens and it should be fun.

It would be nice to see the rubber match, it should definitely be a better series than the last two sweeps for each team. I have to say everyone I know and everyone in the media is way too enamored with last year. What happened last year means little this year unless the Lakers opponents let it get in their heads. However strange things happen to top quality teams when they play the entrenched champs. Just ask the DBacks how they absolutely dominated the Yanks and needed such an unlikely comeback just to barely win. I could see that happening this year, the Spurs or Kings winning some blowouts over the Lakers and outplaying them in the other games, yet Kobe catching fire at the end and being unstoppable and the Lakers winning the close ones.


Call it unsportsmanlike or dirty, but I think teams need to take no chances and play a modified zone against the Lakers and do hack a Shaq in the close games. He still hasn't proven he can beat you at the line, so why are most teams afraid of the backlash? If its the 4th quarter and the game is close, I love my chances to win if a team just fouls O'Neal every possesion. At the very least it pisses him off and he plays flat out lousy when he is upset. He runs up a ton of fouls and stops being a smart team player when he gets angry and if you are a good team that is what you want. This is indeed the ultimate weapon...

you're a youngster, but teams would routinely foul wilt...sometimes as he went over the half court line...got the foul shot rules changed several times....hey, it seems obvious...assign some sub to foul shaq immediately as he gets the ball, in the last 4 min of every close g...kobe will have tokeep the ball from shaq


gl