After acquiring Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in a two-day coup during the summer of 2019, the Los Angeles Clippers played offense like a team from the league’s pre-analytic past. They were consistently among the leaders in pull-up twos attempted, as stars and non-stars alike had green lights to create shots for themselves in the […]
Through two weeks of the NBA season, the league’s first major trend has already emerged: Offensive production is down in a big way. After the league saw mostly steady increases in offensive efficiency dating back a half-decade, that number has cratered to start the year: At a glance, it would appear the gains of the […]
Over the last several years, plays like these have become commonplace in the NBA: James Harden, one of the league’s most accomplished and well-known swindlers, sensed just the faintest contact from defender Paul George. Harden instantly brought his off-arm up to accentuate the contact, flailing around until a whistle blew. ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Breen’s […]
After LeBron James lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs last season for the first time in his career, big changes were bound to come to the Los Angeles Lakers. The splashiest, of course, was the blockbuster acquisition of former MVP and all-time triple-double leader Russell Westbrook. But Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo […]
Early in the final quarter of the final game of the NBA season, Jrue Holiday took a shot that was unremarkable in 2021 but would have driven a coach apoplectic a decade earlier: Holiday raced up the court in transition and flung up a triple without appearing to think of passing. But his audacity gave […]