Stats, analysis, commentary
In a battle of the beat down and bedraggled, the Wizards outlasted the Philadelphia 76ers to secure their 16th win of the season.
Facing a team missing so many players due to injury that they gave 16 minutes to a player they’d signed to a 10-day contract earlier in the afternoon, Washington dominated the first quarter, ran their lead to as much as 18 in the third quarter, and then withstood a spirited Sixers comeback to escape with the win.
The Recitation of Woes
Both teams were missing good players due to injury. Out for Washington:
- Saddiq Bey
- Malcolm Brogdon
- Bilal Coulibaly
- Kyshawn George
- Anthony Gill
- Corey Kispert
- Khris Middleton
- Marcus Smart.
Strictly speaking, Gill and George were “available,” but Gill wasn’t going to play because of left hip soreness, and George wasn’t even with the team.
Out for Philly:
- Joel Embiid
- Tyrese Maxey
- Paul George
- Andre Drummond
- Eric Gordon
- Kyle Lowry
- Jalen Hood-Schifino
- Jared McCain
- Kelly Oubre Jr.
- Lonnie Walker IV
The Sixers entered the season with high hopes, which were smashed by injuries. In February, they lost nine in a row. With last night’s loss to Washington, they’re currently on a six-game skid.
With the win, the Wizards snapped a five-game losing streak of their own and raised their record to 16-56. The Utah Jazz are 16-57 — a half game ahead in the race for the NBA’s worst record.
Bright Spots for the Wizards
- Justin Champagnie produced his fourth double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 rebounds in just 22 minutes. He hit 4-6 from three-point range.
- Jordan Poole was efficient and effective — 18 points on 12 shots, 4-7 from three, 7 assists and just 1 turnover.
- Matched up against his countryman Guerschon Yabusele, Alex Sarr was very good — 24 points on 17 shots, 7 rebounds (4 on the offensive glass), a steal and 2 blocks. He did commit three turnovers but his shooting was so good that his overall efficiency was excellent (130 offensive rating on 27.6% usage).
- Two-way guard Jaylen Martin was solid off the bench — 12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists in 32 minutes.
- Two-way big man Tristan Vukcevic had 16 points, 6 rebounds, a steal and two blocks in 23 minutes.
- The Wizards were three-time “Man of the People” winners by missing free throws that got Philly fans in attendance free chicken. JT Thor got things started the right way by missing a pair less than three minutes into the fourth. That meant fans would get four nuggets. Seven minutes later, Colby Jones missed two more, which boosted the prize to eight nuggets. Finally, with just 13 seconds left in the game, and the Wizards leading by five, Jones delivered for fans by missing two more. That leaves fans with a final count of 12 nuggets. Great work by the Wizards.
Four Factors
Below are the four factors that decide wins and losses in basketball — shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).
The four factors are measured by:
- eFG% (effective field goal percentage, which accounts for the three-point shot)
- OREB% (offensive rebound percentage)
- TOV% (turnover percentage — turnovers divided by possessions)
- FTM/FGA (free throws made divided by field goal attempts)
In the table below are the four factors using the percentages and rates traditionally presented. There’s also a column showing league average in each of the categories to give a sense of each team’s performance relative to the rest of the league this season.
Stats & Metrics
Below are a few performance metrics. PPA is my overall production metric, which credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls).
PPA is a per possession metric designed for larger data sets. In small sample sizes, the numbers can get weird. In PPA, 100 is average, higher is better and replacement level is 45. For a single game, replacement level isn’t much use, and I reiterate the caution about small samples sometimes producing weird results.
POSS is the number of possessions each player was on the floor in this game.
ORTG = offensive rating, which is points produced per individual possessions x 100. League average last season was 114.8. Points produced is not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as sharing credit when receiving an assist.
USG = offensive usage rate. Average is 20%.
ORTG and USG are versions of stats created by former Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver and modified by me. ORTG is an efficiency measure that accounts for the value of shooting, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. USG includes shooting from the floor and free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers.
+PTS = “Plus Points” is a measure of the points gained or lost by each player based on their efficiency in this game compared to league average efficiency on the same number of possessions. A player with an offensive rating (points produced per possession x 100) of 100 who uses 20 possessions would produce 20 points. If the league average efficiency is 114, the league — on average — would produced 22.8 points in the same 20 possessions. So, the player in this hypothetical would have a +PTS score of -2.8.
Players are sorted by total production in the game.