Figured I'd share this quick comparison between this year and last year, both through 4 preseason games. Just for the hell of it... Points per game This year: 105.0 Last year: 89.8 Points Allowed per game This year: 87.0 Last year: 83.5 Point Differential This year: 18.0 Last year: 6.3 Team FG% This year: 50.0% Last year: 43.1% Team FG% Defense This year: 40.0% Last year: 41.2% Team 3PT FG% This year: 40.6% (28/69) Last year: 38.0% (41/108) Anyone who knows anything about statistics knows that 4 games, especially in the preseason, don't provide enough data to make solid conclusions. Doesn't mean they should be ignored though. Things that stick out to me are that the defense doesn't seem to be negatively effected by the new pace and/or offensive mindset. Speaking of offensive mindset, they're scoring a lot more points while taking a lot less 3's. Personally, I love that. Discuss.
team fg% defense to me is the most important stat when it comes to team defense. a more uptempo game will result in more possesions and more points. the team fg of course will be the biggest indicator. one thing i would say is what are the stats without the greek game in there? that game was just a huge mismatch.
Biggest thing I take from that is we're shooting less threes. If you also compare their pace (possessions per minute), we're much faster this year. I wouldn't draw a strong conclusion from the point differential.
the one bad part is all of the teams we've played are poor at best. the sonics will be horrible this year, new orleans...while they're not a bad team by any means will be fighting for one of the lower 7-8 spots if they're healthy. dallas didn't play any of their starters really (then played them for 30 minutes each the next night...p*ssies), and panathinaikos not only isn't on our level talent wise, but were playing in a system that they had almost no experience in. don't get me wrong I'm not saying the stats aren't helpful, I found it interesting that our defense hasn't given up substantial more points while scoring substantially more. I just hope we can keep up the pace playing good teams (of course we will).
Agree, since it was inflated by the Rockets beating some bad teams. However, just by watching the team play, I'm pretty sure that we're going to see them blow out even more teams than last season...and look even better doing it.
i'm just going by the first quarters and 3rd quarters. 2nd and 4th are basically some guys we won't see. we have been AWESOME whenever tmac/yao/battier have been on the floor together. on both ends.
My computer keeps locking up when I try to look at box scores, but what I was able to find is that taking the Panathinaikos game out of the mix doesn't make much difference, except in the Points Allowed Per Game stat. FG% goes from 50.0% to 49.0% FG% Allowed goes from 40.0% to 40.9% Points Allowed goes from 87.0 to 92.7 I don't think the level of competition is that important anyway, because preseason is preseason. You're never going to get a team's true best effort (except the Greeks I guess), so to pick it apart and say one team wasn't playing some guys or one team wasn't trying is too much guess work. Like I said, preseason is preseason. It was the same way last year so that's why I feel ok about making this comparison.
Not much to run with here, but I do like the fact that we're averaging 50% shooting in preseason. You'd normally expect FG percentages to be slightly worse in the preseason as guys try to shake off the offseason rust. It lends credence to the fact that we're getting much easier shots in this offense and relying a lot less on three point shooting. November can't come quickly enough.
I'd say less than 50% but a little bit less. I'm sure we will avarage more than 100 points. Well we will probably also give up more points - here is our offense.
You said it, and yes it does mean it should be ignored. Last year, 1/2 of our opponents were not Pananthinaikos and the Dallas bench. C'mon...no comparison here.
We're talking preseason. Last year the first 4 games were against Memphis' bench (horrible), Atlanta (horrible), Dallas' bench (sound familiar?), and Milwaukee. So, there actually is a comparison here. Maybe you didn't catch that I was comparing this year's first 4 preseason games to last year's first 4 preseason games. At least I hope so for your sake.
Sorry, I did miss that. In that case, I guess your comparison makes more sense, although the small sample size (which, to your credit you discuss) still makes drawing any comparisons tenuous at best. Its always better to see progress than regress though.
Can you say multiple-championships!? Dominate stats, but against all scrubs though, NOK, Pantynickles, DallasPonies, Sonics. Hardly any good teams. But if we can average these kind stats thru out regular season then, wow.
Gotcha. What this thread basically boils down to is that I'm bored at work, can't stop thinking Rockets, and the season needs to get here like 5 minutes ago. F*ck!
Right now, Rox had more than 30 points in the first q. in each game, and other teams just had 15-20 points. The statistical comparsion does make a sense.
As a member of the working classes with too much time on thier hands and MATLAB, I sympathize profusely.
