Can someone please explain this to me?

I probably could have had a + point differential if I had started at pg today.
Rafer is good at getting the team into its sets, but put earl watson in his place today and the +/- probably would have been even more positive. watson can get the ball up the floor, get his team into its sets, and hit open shots more consistently.
the one thing rafer does that he gets the least credit for is his defense. today he got lost on the pick and roll, that's why earl watson got a few easy 18 footers, but in general he is a solid defender. he makes other pgs work hard to get the ball where they want it.

 

earl watson is a terrible shooter, probably as bad as Alston...don't kid yourself.

 

you're right, he is a bad shooter, but the question is, does ayone shoot as many 18 foot bricks on 1 vs 4 anti-fastbreaks as alston does?
what has happened to his floater recently, it hasn't gone down in the last 4 games or so. all i ask is consistency in finishing in the lane for rafer, his outside shooting can be as streaky as it is and it doesn't bother me, its the finishing his drives that needs to be consistent to make him truly effective offensively.

 

This is funny. I can't help laughing.
So what is that (?) category?

 

So can you explain to everyone why he took 17 shots? Thanks in advance.

 

As a one game stat, +/- can't always be taken seriously as a reflector of a player's performance. But over 10, 20, 30+ games it begins to mean something.

 

+/- stat is absolutely worthless when trying to appraise an individual player. Think about it, Landry was the only guy with a negative rating. Thats because he is Yao's backup. Yao scored 30 pts and grabbed 17 boards. When you take Yao out of the game, the Rockets wont fare as well. Landry played well but thats not reflected in his +/- because he wasnt on the court with Big Yao like the other players. Same logic applies to Watson vs Alston. Watson doesnt have Yao or TMac on his team, if he did it would have been much easier to outscore the opponent.

 

I like this type of representation of the +/- numbers for a single game:



From PopcornMachine's GameFlows

 

This blog post was referenced in TrueHoop today, about the Mav's use of the Harris-Terry backcourt.

http://mavs.beloblog.com/archives/2008/01/small_backcourt_produces_big_numbers.html

There's a strong indication that the Mavs follow the +/- stats to inform their substitution patterns. It appears that the Mavs look at certain player combination +/- figures to evaluate what works and what doesn't, and they adjust accordingly. This shouldn't be all that surprising; I hear coaches reference +/- frequently. Again, it's about how you use them.

 

+/- number is meaningless.

 

12 pts, 3 steals, 6 assists (1 turnover), +7, and a W.
I'll take that kind of "bad" night.