I did not like this game! I suppose there are two silver linings: First (I say this knocking on wood), it would appear that Victor Wembanyama\u2019s injury (a bone bruise in his ribs) is unlikely to be a serious problem in the sense that he should be fine for the playoffs. Second, it gave me the opportunity to find out that the League\u2019s absurdly complex 65-game rule is actually a 63+2 rule in which players are allowed to receive credit for up to two games in which they play 15-19 minutes (all other games require 20+ minutes to count towards the total). As such, Wemby gets credit for this game, and is now just one game away from satisfying the requirement. I normally don\u2019t care too much about regular season awards, but in this particular case I actually think that it would cause the NBA serious reputational harm if the individual universally regarded as the best defensive player did not win DPoY because he fell one game short of an arbitrary threshold.<\/p>\n
As impossible as it is to set the injury issue aside when discussing how I feel about this game, I can be more calm and objective when it comes to discussing the box score. Fortunately, the Sliver and Black put together a really solid performance overall, and it shows up in some of the box score highlights:<\/p>\n
What are Team Graded Box Scores?<\/p>\n
Very briefly, these box scores grade winner-loser differentials for basic box score statistics, with the grade being based on the winning team\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n