Wednesday Bolts – 4.16.14
Michael Beuoy of Inpredictable: “The final minute of the fourth quarter lasts five and a half minutes on average. The median length is 4 minutes. At the extreme end, the November 18 game between the Nuggets and Thunder featured a final minute that took twenty minutes to complete. Those last 60 seconds featured two official reviews and a plethora of free throws (12 in total) as the Nuggets repeatedly fouled the Thunder in an unsuccessful attempt to stave off defeat. In the pre-shot clock era, the NBA apparently found late game hacking to be rather unseemly and instituted rules to discourage it. In the final three minutes of regulation, made free throws were followed by a jump ball, rather than automatically awarding possession to the fouling team.”
Berry Tramel: “Statistics can reveal interesting things. Like this. The Thunder is a better defensive team than offensive team. Who would have thought it? Especially after this season of some massive defensive dips with the injuries to Thabo Sefolosha and Kendrick Perkins. But it’s true. In the best statistical analysis – points per possession – the Thunder defense ranks higher in the NBA than does the Thunder offense.”
New stat: True Loathing Rating.
ESPN Forecast: “We called this race last week with Kevin Durant as the clear-cut MVP winner. Now, a week later, our forecast sees KD winning in a landslide. Oklahoma City’s superstar received a whopping 76 first-place votes (out of 85) from our panel, with Miami’s LeBron James earning just eight first-place votes and the Clippers’ Blake Griffin snagging one. Yes, it would appear King James’ reign as league MVP is over. And it’s not due to voter fatigue.”
Ben Golliver of SI.com on MVP: “The clear choice is Durant, who boasts more wins, better numbers and a better narrative than James. I expected a monster scoring season from Durant, but I didn’t foresee the Thunder star surpassing James in catch-all advanced stats like PER (which James has led the league in for six straight seasons) and Win Shares. He provided value through sheer ability, historic consistency and leadership, and his title quest will be one of the league’s most entertaining storylines over the next few months.”
