Statistical Trivia

[Crow]

5 of 6 youngest teams in west. But next 8 in east. 6 oldest split evenly by conference but next 4 in west. The rest near middle are evenly split. Big picture: west split towards extremes, east mostly in middle.

[Mike G]

In Regular seasons plus playoffs, Steph Curry's 4618 3-pointers leads #2 James Harden by more than 1000.
Is this the biggest lead, by ratio, of #1 / #2, in any stat total? Not even:

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stat   leader    most    2nd most    1/2 ratio
OReb   Moses     7939   5169   Parish     1.54
3FG    Curry     4618   3545   Harden     1.30
Ast   Stockton  17645  13634   Paul       1.29
TO     LeBron    6471   5237   Westbrook  1.24
Stl   Stockton   3603   2986  Kidd, Paul  1.21
2FG    Kareem   18192  15308   LeBron     1.19
Blk   Olajuwon   4302   3665   Kareem     1.17
Pts    LeBron   50086  44149   Kareem     1.13
TReb    Wilt    27837  25724   Russell    1.08
FT     Malone   11056  10434   LeBron     1.06
Fouls  Kareem    5454   5240   Malone     1.04
DReb   Duncan   13313  12966   Malone     1.03

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/
Totals are NBA + ABA
OReb, DReb, Stl and Blk since 1974; TO since 1978
Kyle Lowry is the most prolific active player in Fouls, ranking #58 alltime. Then Paul, Westbrook, LeBron at #77.

Another measure of single-stat dominance is '"how many players have even half as many?"

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stat    Leader   most   half as many  rank
Ast   Stockton  17645   9241   Harden   12
OReb   Moses     7939   4016   Grant    15
3FG    Curry     4618   2328  Crawford  15
TReb    Wilt    27837  13958   Buck     20
Blk   Olajuwon   4302   2163   Bol      23
2FG    Kareem   18192   9209   Greer    30
Stl   Stockton   3603   1812   Gus      32
TO     LeBron    6471   3265   'Dre     35
Pts    LeBron   50086  25128   Drexler  42
FT     Malone   11056   5528   Chet     42
FG     LeBron   18320   9180   Harden   45
DReb   Duncan   13313   6689   'Sheed   52
Fouls  Kareem    5454   2728   'Toine  220

[Crow]

A season involves about 270,000 points.

A total matched by LeBron and 5 career clones.


...

[Mike G]

What do these players have in common?

Spencer Dinwiddie
Jalen Wilson
Ives Missi
Mikal Bridges
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Kelly Oubre
Toumani Camara
Keyonte George
Bub Carrington.

[Mike G]

A nice ESPN article on statistical milestones that players might reach this year.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/460 ... kola-jokic

They don't specify Regular Season for these, so I'm adding the Playoff totals and re-ranking players.

"James ... can pass Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leader in made field goals. James is 350 field goals away from Abdul-Jabbar's record (15,837)..."

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total   FG made    RegSea   POff
18,459   LeBron    15,488   2971
18,193   Kareem    15,837   2356
15,271   Malone    13,258   1743
14,380   Jordan    12,192   2188
14,106   Wilt      12,681   1425

"James can also pass Reggie Miller for sixth on the all-time 3-point field goal list ..."

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(1-4: Curry, Harden, Allen, Thompson)
rk  total  3FG made   RegSe  POff
5 - 3039   LeBron     2559   480
6 - 3026   Lillard    2804   222
7 - 2880   Miller     2560   320 

"Durant ...[is] 849 points away from passing Wilt Chamberlain for seventh on the NBA's all-time scoring list...
James Harden, ... is only 603 points away from passing Carmelo Anthony for 10th and 910 away from passing Shaquille O'Neal for ninth."

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(1-5: LeBron, Kareem, Malone, Kobe, Jordan)
rk   total   points    RegSea   POff
6 - 35,556   Durant    30,571   4985
7 - 35,223   Nowitzki  31,560   3663
8 - 35,026   Wilt      31,419   3607
9 - 34,606 * Erving    30,026   4580
10  33,846   Shaq      28,596   5250
11  31,793 * Moses     29,580   2213
12  31,668   Duncan    26,496   5172
13  31,582   Harden    27,687   3895
14  30,701   Olajuwon  26,946   3755
15  30,416 * Issel     27,482   2934
16  30,203   Carmelo   28,289   1914
* -- includes ABA

https://www.basketball-reference.com/le ... eer_c.html

"Jokic, ...the Nuggets' triple-double maestro is just 18 away from passing Oscar Robertson (181) for the second most in NBA history, behind Russell Westbrook (203)."

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tot   3-D      RegSe  POff 
215  Westbrook  203    12
189   Oscar     181     8
185   Jokic     164    21
168   Magic     138    30
150   LeBron    122    28
 

[Mike G]

There have been 49 instances of a player getting at least 2 triple-doubles in a single postseason.
25 times when someone got 3 or more.

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year   3D   player          tm
1960    2   Tom Gola        Phl
1963    5  Oscar Robertson  Cin
.       2   Lenny Wilkens   StL
1967    7  Wilt Chamberlain Phl
1968    2   John Havlicek   Bos
1969    2   Havlicek        Bos
1970    2   Walt Frazier    NYK
1980    5   Magic Johnson   LAL
1982    6   Magic           LAL
.       2   Larry Bird      Bos
1983    2   Magic           LAL
1984    5   Magic           LAL
1985    2   Magic          LAL
.       2   Clyde Drexler   Por
1986    3   Bird            Bos
.       3   Magic           LAL
1987    3   Magic           LAL
1991    4   Magic           LAL
1993    2  Charles Barkley  Phx
1994    2  Mookie Blaylock  Atl
2000    2   Kevin Garnett   Min
2002    4   Jason Kidd      NJN
.       2   Baron Davis     Cha
2003    2   Tim Duncan      SAS
2006    2   LeBron James    Cle
2007    2   Kidd            NJN
2009    3   Rajon Rondo     Bos
2010    2   Rondo           Bos
.       2   LeBron          Cle
2012    4   Rondo           Bos
2013    3   LeBron          Mia
2014    3 Russell Westbrook OKC
2015    3   LeBron          Cle
.       3   Blake Griffin   LAC
2016    2   LeBron          Cle
2017    3   Westbrook       OKC
.       3   LeBron          Cle
2018    4   LeBron          Cle
2019    6   Draymond Green  GSW
.       4   Nikola Jokic    Den
.       2   Westbrook       OKC
2020    5   LeBron          LAL
.       2   Jimmy Butler    Mia
.       2   Luka Doncic     Dal
2021    2   Westbrook       Was
2023   10   Jokic           Den
2024    7   Doncic          Dal
.       2   Jokic           Den
2025    3   Jokic           Den
 

https://www.basketball-reference.com/le ... son_p.html
Jordan had 2 playoff triple-doubles.

[Crow]

So LeBron's last such multiple tripledouble in playoffs was 7 years ago.

Curry never multipe playoff tripledouble. Harden, Durant, Giannis,Tatum, SGA, Haliburton, Brunson, Edwards, Mitchell, Irving, Leonard, Sabonis, B Simmons, Paul never.

Payton Nash, Billups, Jordan, Billups, Ginobili, Cousy, Lever, G Hill, A Hardaway, Frazier, Jabbar, Baylor, Nowitzki, Webber, Russell, Pippen, Bryant never.

Do these guys have single cases? Yeah, some do. See list below. Jerry West, Stockton, Hakeem with one.

Not easy.

How many won the title that time vs. not? If I didn't miss up the count, 14 won, 35 did not. Less than 30% won. Helpful? Probably, most of time. Decisive? Not usually. Look & sound cool? Yeah. Enough to run many teams that way, despite the modest sounding return.


Highest and lowest average BPMs in those games or entire playoffs for this list?


Career playoff leaders
https://www.basketball-reference.com/le ... eer_p.html

75% of the top 20 on total playoff tripledoubles won a title at some point in career. A bit less for the regular season top 20.

[Crow]

What do these players have in common?

Spencer Dinwiddie
Jalen Wilson
Ives Missi
Mikal Bridges
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Kelly Oubre
Toumani Camara
Keyonte George
Bub Carrington.

And the answer was ...?

[Mike G]

[Mediocre] players who led their teams in minutes last season.
A few of them also led (or 2nd) in min/G:

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tm     mpg 1    minT     minT 1     mpg
Brk   Schroeder  12      Wilson      8
Dal   Irving      5      Dinwiddie   8
NOP   Murphy      2      Missi       7
NYK   Hart        2      Bridges     2
Orl   Banchero    6      KCP         3
Phl   Maxey       2      Oubre       2
Por   Camara      1      
Uta   K George    1
Was   Coulibaly   3      Carrington  2

Bridges gets 23 mil for below-avg PER, WS/48, and BPM.

[Mike G]

Historic highs and lows in avg points per game in the NBA. Defined as plus or minus 3 ppg from previous high or low.

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year   Pts/G   eFG%
1947    67.8   .279
1951    84.1   .357
1954    79.5   .372
1962   118.8   .426
1965   110.6   .426
1967   117.4   .441
1969   112.3   .441
1970   116.7   .460
1975   102.6   .457
1985   110.8   .496
1999    91.6   .466
2000    97.5   .478
2004    93.4   .471
2010   100.4   .501
2012    96.3   .487
2023   114.7   .545
2025  (113.8)  .543

The longest uninterrupted trend is 14 years of declining offense, 1985 to 1999, with a loss of 19.2 ppg.
Before that, a 10-year climb (+8.2), and more recently an 11 year climb (+8.4) to a 60-year high in 2023.
In 8 seasons after the introduction of the shot clock (1955-62) scoring increased by nearly 50%.