 Game 4 Advanced Stats and the Return to Mediocrity Needless to say, last night's game threw a monkey wrench into the Sixers advanced stats. A look at the numbers and a statistical oddity after the jump.
 The defensive rating has gone from bad to pitiful. The offensive rating is dropping back to pre-Princeton offense levels. Through four games, this is not a pretty picture. The oddity I mentioned is in the four factors. The Sixers are winning every single one of them except eFG. This isn't really that big of a surprise, considering the team can't defend the three-point line and they can't shoot the deep ball either. I was a little surprised to see that they held an edge in all the other categories, though. If there's one thing that I'd like to see changed, it's the pace. So far this season, the other team has dictated the pace in every game. Orlando and Boston prefer to play at a slow pace, so the game was played at a slow pace. Milwaukee and New York play fast, so it was a fast pace. The Sixers haven't controlled the tempo of a single game yet. I'd like to see them impose their will on a game at some point. 
Latest Posts• Twelve is Looming • More Distractions • Moving Day • There Is a Precedent • First-Person Report: Sixers vs. Pistons • At Least It Wasn't the Threes • Our Weakness is Weaker Than Yours • Thriving At the Two? • Eddie Jordan Confidence Meter (1/4 Seaso • The Day After • Sixers All Over NBA.com Video • First-Person Report: Sixers vs. NuggetsSearchBlogs in The NetworkSixers BlogsPassion and Pride Sixers 4 Guidos Liberty Ballers Recliner GM PhillyArena Heard In The Cheap SeatsSilver Dollar Slots | ||||||||||||||||
Brian, I like the idea, but I think you gotta wait until you have a substantial amount of games to really see where this team is about? Maybe 20-25% of the season, maybe by game 20 or so we'll have an idea where they truly stand, right now the impact of a single game is just so huge
Yeah, I'm just going to follow it throughout, nothing big picture to be determined yet.
Brian - by the way - if you want the data - per game - more databasey so you could easily compare home away a bunc of other stuff - let me know - i'm discovering that database geek / building complicated queries is really the stuff I like to do - i wish i could afford the xml sports 640 for the year - I could probably afford a third/quarter if maybe you and derek and jordan want to share the data, but i'm still looking for ways to get as much free NBA data as MLB provides.
Either way - if you want to incorporate the stuff you are doing into some sort of database so that you can look at it various ways - let me know.
I can also write some PHP if you wanted so you could access it yousrlef
I'd give it time.
I'd say we've won two games we expected to lose, and two games we expected to win.
The early struggles are not much of a surprise, although I was hoping to see smarter rotations out there.
I'd say we've won two games we expected to lose, and two games we expected to win.
Huh?
No - they've lost two games they were expected to lose - and they got thrashed - not even close
They won two games they were expected to win and almost lost one of those because - you know - a 20 point lead isn't big enough for this team and their crappy defense
The magic and celtics definitely controlled the pace. They have the defensive talent to do so. The sixers are a fast team, and against the bucks and knicks, both teams were controlling the pace for some parts of the game.
It`s like playing a novice chess player one day, and an expert the next (analogy Thursdays!).
Without pouring over the statistics, my observations last night were that the Celtics did not outplay the Sixers. They out shot them. Statisticians will say that the Celtics defense was the big difference in the game. I was there. What I saw was that, yes, the Celtics defense was better than the Sixers defense in the sense that they allowed fewer uncontested shots than the Sixers allowed. The difference was really that Boston hit almost all of their uncontested 3-point shots and some of the contested ones. The Sixers hit none of the contested 3-point shots and only one of the many uncontested shots. Boston simply shots the lights out and the Sixers couldn't hit anything. As an unadvanced statistic, the C's hit 14 of 20 3's. The Sixers hit 1 of 16. A normal night for each would have been about 8-9 of 20 for the C's and 5 or 6 of 16 for the Sixers. That accounted for the entire scoring difference.
All that aside, someone needs to whack Thad upside his head and tell him to stay with his man, no matter what. He constantly leaves his man, who is then open for a good shot - often a 3-pointer. He did that all year lastyear, too. Thad also missed 2-3 open, uncontested 3-pointers. They shot so poorly that Maurice missed 15 ft jumpers he usually hits and Kapono even missed a technical foul shot.
It was embarrassing how badly they shot and it masked how they actually "played".
Elton Brand looked 40.
All very true, except right now I beg to differ on EB. Along with Lou, he is the sole player having to make the biggest adjustment in this new offense.
The elbow jumpers are there, it just seems that when the sets are running EB is not the guy that receives the pass or handoff at that spot. They need to incorporate some of the basic (traditional) sets to get him touches on the block with his back to the basket, if for nothing else but to see if it will draw a double team.
On an unrelated but somewhat related note, our advanced stats sure could have used that 90% shooting tonight from Ty Lawson. 3 for 3 from three point land and 9-10 from the field for 23 pts in only 28 minutes. Whew!
But, look on the bright side - Jrue has upside AND potential.
*Sigh*
There`s really no point in making comments like that. What was done was done. The sixers have made some pretty successful drafts in the recent years. I don`t think a mistake has been made with Jrue.
Plus, The nuggets are more likely to compete now, whereas the sixers are not. Having Lawson on our team wouldn`t have made as much of a difference as having him on an already solid team.
I personally love how after 4 games the jrue/lawson debate has already been decided (of course for some it was decided on draft night) - it's not about 4 games, or 40 gams, or one season it's about a CAREER...