Study Hall: Spurs cruise again

The Spurs tally another win in the cozy confines of the AT&T Center. Washington played well, barely besting the Spurs in several key measures, but San Antonio's shooting edge carried the day.

By BrettJones@comradebernout Dec 17, 2015, 2:10pm CST

Spurs 114, Wizards 95 - Dec 16, '15

The Spurs continue to strangle opponents at home, notching their 23rd straight home victory and 14th on the season as they cruised to a win over Wizards, who fought valiantly but could not resist the power of the Spurs Death Star.

What was crazy about this game was that the Wizards really didn't play poorly. They bested the Spurs in three of the Four Factors, gaining slight edges in ballhandling, offensive rebounding rate and free throw rate. Of course, the most important of the Four Factors is Shooting, where the Spurs gained an obscene 14 percentage point edge in effective field goal percentage.

Even without Tim Duncan's rim protection, the Spurs held Washington to an abysmal 42.9% shooting from inside the restricted area. The Wizards also could barely get up any uncontested threes, as the league's leading three point defense struck once again, holding Washington to a meagre 3/15 from deep.

On the other end of the floor, the Spurs scored from all over the floor, dropping bunnies from short range, nailing mid range jumpers at an obscene rate and shooting a respectable 36.4% from three.

I don't think I'm ever going to stop being amazed by the things Kawhi Leonard can do on the court. He scored 27 points on 9-15 shooting, went 4-7 from deep to continue his reign as league's leading 3 point shooter, dished out 4 assists and grabbed 4 steals just to top it off. He is a very, very bad man.

David West had a great showing, helping the Duncan-less Spurs remain competitive on the boards with 10 rebounds and putting up nine points to go with an assist, two blocks and a steal.

LaMarcus Aldridge had his shot going from mid-range, with another 50+ FG% outing. He continues to look more comfortable in the Spurs offense, and it's really exciting to see his low FG% from early in the season continuing to trend in the right direction. Aldridge has always been able to score in volume; finding a way to make him an efficient scorer too is flat out unfair.

Manu continues to produce absurd numbers in minimal minutes, going 4-7 from the field for 11 points, 3 boards 8 assists (season high), and a steal with 3 turnovers the only mark Bad Manu was allowed to make on the game.

Tony had a great night as a distributor, dishing out a season high 10 assists. He continues to look spry. Every game that goes by with Tony near peak form is an encouraging sign.

The star of the game, of course, was Boban Marjanovic, who played 15 glorious minutes, going 2-4 from the field and hitting 3 of 4 free throws to go with 6 boards 2 blocks and a turnover. I've never liked or rooted so hard for a player as Boban. His presence at the end of the bench makes even blowouts worth watching, but he has flashed the ability to function as a solid backup center.

He continue to improve on his hands and looks less turnover prone with each passing game. His 15 minutes with a single turnovers helped drop him from the most turnover prone Spur on the season to the 4th a TO Ratio of 14.1, lower than David West, Jonathon Simmons and (somehow) Tim Duncan*. For another point of reference, Aron Baynes averaged 13.9 last year, and Jeff Ayres broke the scale at 19.6 in 2013-2014. A superbly skilled 7'3" backup center who turns the ball over less than Timmy? Only the Spurs could be so lucky.

* Has anyone else noticed how often Tim has been throwing the ball away lately? I checked, and Duncan's 14.9 TO Ratio this year is 1.5x higher than last year's 9.9. Cause for concern? Probably not. But something to watch out for.

The Spurs look to continue their dominance on Friday when they host the Clippers. I can't recall exactly what happened the last time those teams met, but some part of me hopes this one ends with Boban Marjanovic throwing Chris Paul seven rows into the stands. Go Spurs Go!

Four Factors (def.)

	Spurs	Wizards
Shooting (eFG%)	58%	44%
Ball Handling (TO%)	13%	12%
Off Rebounding (OR%)	22%	22%
Shooting FTs (FT Rate)	28%	30%

Team Stats (Definitions at bottom of post)

	Spurs	Wizards
Pace (No. of Possessions)	97.6
Points Per Possession (PPP)	1.17	0.97
Points Per Shot (PPS)	1.37	1.13
2-PT FG%	59.0%	46.4%
3-PT FG%	36.4%	20.0%
FT%	78.3%	88.0%
True Shooting %	61.2%	50.0%

	Spurs	Wizards
Offensive Rating	116.2	97.9
Defensive Rating	97.9	116.2
Net Rating	18.2	-18.2

	Spurs	Wizards
Passes / poss.	2.4	2.1
% of FGA uncontested	56.6%	46.4%
Points in the paint	48	40
Second chance points	17	6
Fast break points	15	19

	Spurs	Wizards
Assists	29	22
Steals	10	6
Turnovers	11	12
Ball Control Index (BCI) (Assists + Steals) / TO	3.55	2.33

	Spurs	Wizards
Expected Offensive Rebounds	9.0	11.3
Offensive Rebounds	8	10
Difference	-1.0	-1.3

Spurs Shot Chart

Wizards Shot Chart

Players (Definitions at bottom of post, columns sortable)

Spurs

Player	Min	AdjGS	GS/Min	Line	Usage%	Floor%	OffRtg	DefRtg	NetRtg
Kawhi Leonard	38	27.8	0.73	27 Pts (9-15 FG, 4-7 3PT, 5-6 FT) 3 Reb (0 Off), 4 Ast, 4 Stl, 1 TO, 2 PF	23%	66%	107.4	103.5	3.9
David West	25	12.4	0.50	9 Pts (4-7 FG, 1-2 FT) 10 Reb (3 Off), 1 Ast, 2 Blk, 1 Stl, 3 PF	14%	59%	111.1	97.2	13.9
LaMarcus Aldridge	33	12.1	0.36	14 Pts (6-12 FG, 2-2 FT) 6 Reb (1 Off), 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 PF	17%	56%	108.2	102.3	5.9
Manu Ginobili	18	12.0	0.65	11 Pts (4-7 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-2 FT) 3 Reb (0 Off), 8 Ast, 1 Stl, 3 TO, 3 PF	27%	59%	123.6	91.0	32.6
Tony Parker	26	10.7	0.41	10 Pts (5-13 FG, 0-2 3PT ) 4 Reb (2 Off), 10 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 Stl, 3 TO, 2 PF	27%	46%	97.4	98.9	-1.4
Patty Mills	19	9.0	0.47	11 Pts (4-8 FG, 0-2 3PT, 3-3 FT) , 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 PF	23%	63%	131.7	88.6	43.2
Boban Marjanovic	15	7.8	0.52	7 Pts (2-4 FG, 3-4 FT) 6 Reb (2 Off), 2 Blk, 1 TO, 1 PF	20%	53%	140.0	82.5	57.5
Boris Diaw	21	6.7	0.32	6 Pts (3-5 FG, 0-1 3PT ) 5 Reb (0 Off), 1 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 1 PF	13%	51%	114.4	100.7	13.7
Kyle Anderson	17	5.7	0.34	6 Pts (2-3 FG, 2-4 FT) 1 Reb (0 Off), 2 Ast, 2 Blk, 1 TO, 2 PF	16%	58%	132.4	100.1	32.3
Danny Green	19	5.2	0.28	7 Pts (3-7 FG, 1-5 3PT ) 4 Reb (0 Off), 1 Blk, 1 PF	16%	42%	108.3	88.0	20.3
Matt Bonner	2	2.8	1.49	3 Pts (1-1 FG, 1-1 3PT ) 1 Reb (0 Off), 1 PF	33%	100%	166.7	128.9	37.8
Jonathon Simmons	4	1.7	0.42	3 Pts (1-1 FG, 1-1 3PT ) , 1 Ast, 1 TO, 2 PF	25%	54%	142.9	114.2	28.7
Rasual Butler	3	0.0	0.00	0 Pts ,	0%	0%	200.0	163.9	36.1

Show Wizards Players

Player	Min	AdjGS	GS/Min	Line	Usage%	Floor%	OffRtg	DefRtg	NetRtg
Marcin Gortat	40	27.9	0.71	20 Pts (9-15 FG, 2-2 FT) 10 Reb (2 Off), 2 Ast, 3 Blk, 1 Stl, 1 TO	19%	61%	98.3	108.4	-10.1
John Wall	38	20.0	0.52	20 Pts (6-18 FG, 1-3 3PT, 7-8 FT) 5 Reb (1 Off), 11 Ast, 1 Stl, 5 TO, 1 PF	31%	47%	102.1	104.9	-2.8
Kelly Oubre	25	14.2	0.58	18 Pts (6-15 FG, 2-7 3PT, 4-4 FT) 3 Reb (2 Off), 3 PF	30%	49%	105.2	117.4	-12.2
Ramon Sessions	25	11.8	0.47	10 Pts (3-6 FG, 4-5 FT) 2 Reb (0 Off), 4 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 TO, 1 PF	18%	57%	103.1	121.3	-18.1
Kris Humphries	29	7.9	0.28	8 Pts (4-8 FG, 0-2 3PT ) 9 Reb (3 Off), 1 Ast, 2 TO, 2 PF	15%	40%	93.4	113.9	-20.5
Gary Neal	22	5.1	0.23	8 Pts (3-10 FG, 2-2 FT) 3 Reb (1 Off), 2 Ast, 3 PF	23%	43%	84.4	127.4	-43.0
Garrett Temple	11	3.6	0.32	3 Pts (1-2 FG, 0-1 3PT, 1-2 FT) , 1 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 PF	11%	60%	102.1	119.0	-16.9
Jared Dudley	19	2.6	0.14	2 Pts (1-1 FG, ) 2 Reb (0 Off), 1 PF	2%	100%	104.7	119.4	-14.7
Otto Porter	23	2.3	0.10	2 Pts (1-6 FG, 0-2 3PT ) 2 Reb (0 Off), 1 Ast, 3 Stl, 2 PF	12%	22%	88.2	114.9	-26.8
DeJuan Blair	8	-0.4	-0.05	4 Pts (1-3 FG, 2-2 FT) 2 Reb (1 Off), 2 TO, 4 PF	33%	34%	96.2	151.3	-55.2

Spurs Index: 103.0 (def.)

Factor	Value	Score
Passing (AST%)	65.9%	31.8
Shooting (eFG%)	57.8%	21.5
Defensive Rebounding (DReb%)	77.8%	20.4
Defense (DefRtg)	97.9	20.4
Opponent % of FGA Uncontested	46.4%	8.8
Total		103.0

Wizards Spurs Index: 91.4 Show Breakdown

Confused? Show Advanced Stats Glossary

eFG%: Effective Field Goal percentage. (via) Effective Field Goal Percentage; the formula is (FG + 0.5 * 3P) / FGA. This statistic adjusts for the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal. For example, suppose Player A goes 4 for 10 with 2 threes, while Player B goes 5 for 10 with 0 threes. Each player would have 10 points from field goals, and thus would have the same effective field goal percentage (50%).

AdjGS: a take-off of the Game Score metric (definition here) accepted by a lot of basketball stat nerds. It takes points, assists, rebounds (offensive & defensive), steals, blocks, turnovers and fouls into account to determine an individual's "score" for a given game. The "adjustment" in Adjusted Game Score is simply matching the total game scores to the total points scored in the game, thereby redistributing the game's points scored to those who had the biggest impact on the game itself, instead of just how many balls a player put through a basket.

Usage%: This "estimates the % of team possessions a player consumes while on the floor" (via). The usage of those possessions is determined via a formula using field goal and free throw attempts, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. The higher the number, the more prevalent a player is (good or bad) in a team's offensive outcome.

Floor%: Via Basketball-Reference.com: Floor % answers the question, "when Player X uses a possession, what is the probability that his team scores at least 1 point?". The higher the Floor%, the more frequently the team probably scores when the given player is involved.

Offensive Rating (offRtg): Points per 100 possessions.

Defensive Rating (defRtg): Points allowed per 100 possessions.

Spurs Index: The Spurs Index © is a just-for-fun formula that attempts to quantify just how "Spursy" a particular game is, based off averages for the 2013-2014 regular season. A perfectly average game would have a Spurs Index of 100. The formula consists of four factors which the Spurs are known for and lead or nearly lead the league in: Shooting (effective Field Goal %), Passing (Assist percentage), Defensive Rebounding Rate, and Defensive Rating. These metrics are weighted as follows:

Factor	Weight	Average
Passing (AST%)	30%	62.1%
Shooting (eFG%)	20%	53.7%
Defensive Rebounding (DReb%)	20%	76.4%
Defense (DefRtg)	20%	100.1
Opponent % of FGA Uncontested	10%	40.8%

The values for each metric are determined based on how a particular game's performance compares to the Spurs 2013-2014 regular season average for that metric. For instance, the average effective Field Goal percentage for 2013-2014 was 53.7%. So if the Spurs shot 60% in a given game, the score for eFG% would be calculated by: (0.6 / 0.537) * 20, which would yield a "score" for that factor of 22.3.

Special thanks to:

Bill Connelly over at our sister blog Rock M Nation, for the idea for Study Hall (and many of the stats and definitions)
Nick Bottomley, whose nba stats API project made it possible to automate the statistical breakdowns for every game