What is our FT % and FT defense ? Those defensive stats are instant viagra. Got to get back to averaging 23 assists and cut down the turnovers.
Thanks! LOL under pressure now... I'll try not to disappoint you. Give me a little time. To answer another poster: Yes, they are 3-game vs 82-game from last season. People can actually see areas of progress or regression from last season.
Because they played against a bad team. What is scary is even a bad team can led the Rockets by 20 points. That is the scary. There was absolutely no defense whatsoever in the 1st half. Street ball players have better defense than them.
First of all Utah is not a bad team by definition like the former bobcats teams (well they still are not better but their defense is) or the Suns. They have the talent to produce wins against the better teams depending on how good their backcourt plays on a particular night (their frontcourt is nothing to laugh about 2. rebounding team in the league thus far) and since they are young like REALLY really young there will be games where they make incredible headscratching plays but the next play your jaw might drop to the floor. What made our victory interesting, was that it came after they had a 19 point lead in the first half and were really 'feeling it'.
Stats from mysynergy.com (link) are in (numbers are in league rankings): Overall offense (efficiency in ppp) ------------------------ #3 Garcia (1.34) #53 Harden (1.02) #1 in isolation, #2 in PnR ballhandling #61 Casspi (1.00) #72 Lin (0.99) #4 PnR ballhandler #99 Dwight (0.93) #145 Parsons (0.85) #160 Asik (0.82) Not qualified for ranking: Beverly (1.13) Overall defense ------------------------- #3 Asik (0.46) #21 Harden (0.64) Tied #59 Lin (0.79) #15 PnR ballhandler Tied #59 Dwight (0.79) #86 Parsons (0.85) #115 Garcia (0.93) Not qualified for ranking: Casspi (1.00) Beverley (1.09)
Team stats for 29 games: Code: [SIZE="2"] [B]Offense 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] Points/game 106.3 2 105.5 Average scoring margin +3.9 7 +2.8 [B]Offensive Efficiency 1.055 3 1.057[/B] Points in Paint 50.0 3 45.8 Fastbreak points/game 15.8 8 18.3 Points from 3 28.1 4 31.9 [B]Defense 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] Opponent PPG 102.4 24 102.7 [B]Defensive efficiency 1.017 15 1.028[/B] Opponent Pts in Paint/game 43.7 22 41.5 Opponent fastbreak pts/game 13.7 19 14.3 Opponent points from 3 24 20 24.6 [B]Shooting 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] Shooting % 47.6 3 45.8 eFG % 53.6 3 52.3 True shooting % 113.4 2 111.4 3 point % 35.3 16 36.4 Opponent shooting % 43.5 7 45.4 Opponent eFG % 48.0 9 50.2 Opp true shooting % 103 8 107.4 Opponent 3 point % 35.6 12 36.6 [B]Rebounding 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] Defensive rebounds/game 36.3 1 32.4 Offensive rebounds/game 12 14 11.1 Opp off rebounds/game 14.3 27 10.6 Opp def rebounds/game 25.3 1 31.1 [B]Free Throws 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] FTA/game 31.2 1 25.6 FT % 69.1 23 75.1 Opp FTA/game 23.7 16 21.8 Opp FT % 74.7 15 78.1 [B]Miscellaneous 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] Pace 96.2 6 96.1 Assists/game 20.3 19 22.8 TO's/game 17.9 29 16.4 Blocks/game 6.1 4 4.5 Steals/game 7.9 15 8.1[/SIZE] Stats are not encouraging. We are basically the same team from last season after 29 games. Our offense regressed a bit and our defense (in efficiency) made marginal improvement despite having the same core AND adding the best center in the league, and not to mention we still had Asik for most of the season. I feel totally frustrated seeing the stats and begin to wonder if it has everything to do with our system and not the players. Could it be that no matter what talents we have and had, our stats reverted back to the means of our system? We made talents play into our system instead of playing into our talents. To people who said we need time to gel, just a reminder that there are plenty of teams who had virtually new rosters but are playing way above their talent level (Mavs, Hawks, Lakers, Suns). Here are stats that I find them interesting: Scoring margins by quarters and halves: Code: [SIZE="2"] [B]Team Average Margin 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] [B]1st quarter margin +3.3 2[/B] -0.6 2nd quarter margin +1.4 7 +0.9 3rd quarter margin +0.7 11 +1.9 [B]4th quarter margin -1.6 29[/B] +0.8 [B]1st half margin +4.7 2[/B] +0.4 [B]2nd half margin -0.9 16[/B] +2.8 (#2 ranked)[/SIZE] By the numbers of two halves, we are a championship team (projected to 66 wins) for the first half but a lottery team (projected to 37 wins) for the second half. The way I see the possibilities: 1. Opposition teams made adjustments during half time. 2. We were poorly in countering or re-adjusting during games. 3. Players ran out of gas by 4th quarter. Coaches have to realigned playtime. Stop playing Harden and Dwight for 12 full min in 1st quarter. Links: http://www.basketball-reference.com/ http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stats/
/injuries We were the healthiest team in the NBA last year, now the most snakebitten in terms of player-games lost.
Our stats are actually much better, we just give the opponent too many posessions. Our FG% is up, and our opponents FG% is down a fair bit. We just need to cut down turnovers and do a little better job keeping opponents off the offensive glass. Both are correctable, the team still has some roster moves to be made and cohesion which only time will do, but I do see very positive signs.
The 1st half-2nd half numbers are eye-popping. Consider that we were horrible in the first quarter with the TT at the beginning and came back to win some games. So if you take away those early games, the discrepancy between the two halves would be even bigger!
The strength of a team lies in its advanced stats. The win/loss record is a byproduct of its stats. To all who said we missing Asik and Bev for their defense, surprisingly Rockets are better defensively (by +0.009 PPP) than last year. Ranked 15th defensively, still not good enough to contend for a championship. It's our offense that regressed by -0.006 PPP. I call this Dwight Effect. Margin of points/game gauges the strength of a team, and we have marginally improved from last season of +2.8 to +3.2. Team stats for 41 games or 1/2 season. Code: [SIZE="2"] [B]Offense 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] Points/game 104.9 4 105.5 Average scoring margin +3.2 9 +2.8 [B]Offensive Efficiency 1.051 7 1.057[/B] Points in Paint 50.2 3 45.8 Fastbreak points/game 15.9 7 18.3 Points from 3 26.6 6 31.9 [B]Defense 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] Opponent PPG 101.7 19 102.7 [B]Defensive efficiency 1.019 13 1.028[/B] Opponent Pts in Paint/game 43.6 23 41.5 Opponent fastbreak pts/game 13.2 15 14.3 Opponent points from 3 23.1 15 24.6 [B]Shooting 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] Shooting % 47.2 3 45.8 eFG % 52.8 3 52.3 True shooting % 112.0 3 111.4 [B]3 point % 34.4 22 36.4[/B] Opponent shooting % 43.5 5 45.4 Opponent eFG % 47.8 5 50.2 Opp true shooting % 102.6 4 107.4 Opponent 3 point % 34.5 7 36.6 [B]Rebounding 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] Defensive rebounds/game 34.1 4 32.4 Offensive rebounds/game 10.9 19 11.1 [B]Opp off rebounds/game 12.5 28 10.6[/B] Opp def rebounds/game 29.9 2 31.1 [B]Free Throws 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] FTA/game 31.7 1 25.6 FT % 69.0 29 75.1 Opp FTA/game 22.8 12 21.8 Opp FT % 75.5 15 78.1 [B]Miscellaneous 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] Pace 95.6 8 96.1 [B]Assists/game 20.0 25 22.8 (#6)[/B] TO's/game 16.3 28 16.4 Blocks/game 6.1 3 4.5 Steals/game 7.3 18 8.1[/SIZE] Scoring margins by quarters and halves: Code: [SIZE="2"] [B]Team Average Margin 2013 Rank # 2012[/B] 1st quarter margin +2.0 5 -0.6 2nd quarter margin +1.6 5 +0.9 3rd quarter margin +0.7 10 +1.9 [B]4th quarter margin -1.1 24[/B] +0.8 [B]1st half margin +3.6 4[/B] +0.4 [B]2nd half margin -0.4 15[/B] +2.8 (#2 ranked)[/SIZE] A few notes: - We are the 4th best team in the league for the 1st half (projected to 59 wins) but a 39-win team for the second half. - Rockets allowed 1.9 extra offensive rebounds/game. By the end of the season, it translates into 5 losses. - Our assists/game is way down this year, from #6 to #25. Sticky ball is not team ball. - Our pace went down to 8th in the league and so did our offense. Once the game slows down, our offense becomes less efficient. - Our 3-point shooting is down by 2% from last season. HOWEVER, it only accounts for about 1.3 loss for the season. It's not something we should worry about. - Strength Of Schedule (opponents winning percentage) for the season: 52% (ranked 10th toughest schedule in the league) Links: http://www.basketball-reference.com/ http://www.playoffstatus.com/nba/westernsosag.html http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stats/
