LeBron James is the best player of this generation. If I was on the opposing bench, this would be my game plan to try and stop him (or at least slow him down). [Read more…]
How to Stop (or Slow) LeBron James
Marks: “Super Stat” Harvey Pollack in the Fight of His Life
Editor’s note: This story originally was published in February, when our Jon Marks had the chance to spend some time with Ron Pollack, the son of legendary statistician Harvey Pollack, who died Tuesday at the age of 93. PHILADELPHIA – The vigil begins early. Ron Pollack arrives at Hahnemann Hospital at 8 o’clock every morning – just in time for doctor’s rounds – and heads immediately for the Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit. He brings his I-Pad and other electronic
Raptors Adjusting Well, Analytically, to Life without DeRozan
Beasts of the East we can call them. And no, unlike what was projected in the preseason, we are not talking about the Bulls or Cavaliers. The Toronto Raptors (16-6) have been one of the more interesting teams to follow this season. Their place atop the Eastern Conference standings and the sixth-best record in the NBA is made all the more impressive by the fact that in a league where the best teams usually have at least one superstar, generally a multi-time All-Star, this
Sprung: How the Thunder Will Survive Without Kevin Durant
How will the Oklahoma City Thunder do without Kevin Durant for the first six to eight weeks of the season? It’s extremely hard to tell, considering Durant has missed a total of 16 regular season games over the course of his seven-year career, including just two over the last two seasons. Durant’s lone absence last season came on Jan. 24 in a 101-83 win over Boston in which Russell Westbrook did not play, either. With Durant sidelined by a Jones fracture in
Bernucca: Analytics For the Easily Amused
The growth of analytics in the NBA has been nothing short of phenomenal. It started with a deeper look at numbers that already were available and produced new and useful statistics such as true shooting percentage, defensive rebound percentage, offensive rating and win shares. With the use of a grid or a matrix, we now have the ability to determine a player’s offensive tendencies and hot spots. For some players, it is quite revealing. For others, such as DeAndre Jordan, it pretty
The Numbers Say… The Pacers’ Defense and Lakers’ Bench Joined Rare Company
After months of agonizing anticipation, the 2013-14 NBA regular season has finally begun. Three games ushered in the new year, and as one might imagine, the numbers were quite astonishing. No team posted numbers that were as impressive as the Indiana Pacers. Indiana won its season opener by defeating the Orlando Magic 97-87 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Paul George scored 24 points, Lance Stephenson added a surprisingly strong 19 and Orlando Johnson scored nine off of the bench as the defending Central
Road Court Advantage: The Curious Case of Paul Millsap’s Perimeter Shooting
It’s no secret that Paul Millsap is one of the league’s most underrated big men. The topic has been discussed at length by bloggers for years and, yet, the lack of credit he continues to receive is borderline criminal. How underrated is Millsap exactly? In every season since 2010-2011, he’s ranked among the league’s best 30 in efficiency. Millsap’s 31.5 cumulative Estimated Wins Added for the Jazz since 2010 ranks him ahead of rival power forwards Chris Bosh, Kevin Garnett and David
Sprung: LeBron James and Erik Spoelstra preach patience for Miami Heat
BROOKLYN – LeBron James doesn’t like losing. Not one bit. His Miami Heat just barely put up 60 points against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night in an 86-62 defeat at the Barclays Center. Was he mad? Nope, he was patient. “We’re just trying to get better and not waste an opportunity to get better,” James said. “We don’t have all our guys playing, but when guys were in the game, they played, worked hard.” Miami didn’t really work so hard rebounding the basketball