Wow! This game contained some cringe-worthy stretches of play by the Spurs, but they did just enough to stay in striking distance before finally finding an extra gear in crunch time. To cap it all off, Victor Wembanyama ended the game with a strategy that I typically hate: dribble the ball in place on the perimeter with time winding down, attempt to drive to the basket, and then settle for an absurdly difficult midrange fadeaway. However, because it worked I will now insist that it was an awesome plan that I always supported without reservation.
In any case, games like this typically produce a lot of bad box score grades, simply because close games are generally decided by narrow box score margins. As a result, the winner’s performance does not usually grade well relative to other winners. Even so, patterns in the data can still be unique and informative, as was the case last night:
What are Team Graded Box Scores?
Very briefly, these box scores grade winner-loser differentials for basic box score statistics, with the grade being based on the winning team’s differential relative to other NBA winners during a defined reference period. Think of it like a report card for understanding how a given winner performed relative to other winners. The reference period used runs from the start of the 2012-2013 season to the latest date of play, including only games in the same season category (i.e., regular season and playoff games are not compared to each other).
Data Source: The underlying data used to create these box scores was collected from Basketball Reference. In all cases, the data are collected the morning after the game is played. Although rare, postgame statistical revisions after data collection do occur and may affect the results after the fact.