By the Numbers: Spurs top Nuggets across the board

The Spurs topped the Nuggets in all of the Four Factors en route to their 17th straight home win to start the season.

By BrettJones@comradebernout Dec 27, 2015, 12:04pm CST

Spurs 101, Nuggets 86 - Dec 26, '15

The Spurs topped the Nuggets in categories in this one to earn their 17th straight home victory to start the year. Let's dive in.

The Spurs shot 70% from three! I don't have a proof on hand, but I'm pretty sure it's mathematically impossible to beat the Spurs when they shoot 70% from deep.
On the other hand, the Spurs only attempted 10 three pointers. That's absurdly few in today's NBA, but the ridiculous seven makes matches San Antonio's season average, it just took them nine fewer attempts to get there.
The Spurs actually got outshot from inside the arc, 48.5% to 45.1%. But it didn't matter cuz of that ridiculous 7/10 from three.
The good guys also topped the Nugs in turnovers, rebounding and free throw attempts/percentage, thus making sure there was no way for Denver to climb back into this one.
That Kawhi Leonard's 20/5/5/2 line looks pretty pedestrian says something about his exponential growth as a player. He hit a lot of shots and is Curry-like in his ability to hit low-percentage/high degree-of-difficulty shots at an efficient clip.
Fantastic effort from David West filling in for Timmeh. His versatile 10 points, 4 boards, 6 assists, 4 blocks and a steal helped propel the Spurs to the win.
Boban! I love watching Boban play, but his defense seems to be an all-or-nothing kind of deal, with opponents either getting an easy layup or having their shot swatted, which happened 4 times last night. We'll see if Boban's positioning and savvy can improve and help him overcome slower foot speed. You have to love the 8/8 from the line, though.
The Spurs take on the Timberwolves Monday night at the AT&T Center as they look to extend their 17 game home winning streak. Go Spurs Go!

Four Factors (def.)

	Spurs	Nuggets
Shooting (eFG%)	52%	47%
Ball Handling (TO%)	14%	16%
Off Rebounding (OR%)	26%	21%
Shooting FTs (FT Rate)	21%	7%

Team Stats (Definitions at bottom of post)

	Spurs	Nuggets
Pace (No. of Possessions)	93.6
Points Per Possession (PPP)	1.08	0.92
Points Per Shot (PPS)	1.25	1.00
2-PT FG%	45.1%	48.5%
3-PT FG%	70.0%	27.8%
FT%	94.1%	83.3%
True Shooting %	57.1%	48.5%

	Spurs	Nuggets
Offensive Rating	110.4	89.9
Defensive Rating	89.9	110.4
Net Rating	20.5	-20.5

	Spurs	Nuggets
Passes / poss.	3.5	2.8
% of FGA uncontested	46.9%	43.0%
Points in the paint	42	48
Second chance points	14	6
Fast break points	11	4

	Spurs	Nuggets
Assists	21	25
Steals	11	6
Turnovers	11	15
Ball Control Index (BCI) (Assists + Steals) / TO	2.91	2.07

	Spurs	Nuggets
Expected Offensive Rebounds	9.5	9.8
Offensive Rebounds	10	8
Difference	0.5	-1.8

Spurs Shot Chart

Nuggets Shot Chart

Players (Definitions at bottom of post, columns sortable)

Spurs

Player	Min	AdjGS	GS/Min	Line	Usage%	Floor%	OffRtg	DefRtg	NetRtg
Kawhi Leonard	32	20.3	0.64	20 Pts (7-13 FG, 2-2 3PT, 4-4 FT) 5 Reb (2 Off), 5 Ast, 2 Stl, 2 TO, 1 PF	25%	61%	117.9	83.5	34.4
David West	26	16.2	0.62	10 Pts (5-8 FG, ) 4 Reb (0 Off), 6 Ast, 4 Blk, 1 Stl, 1 PF	14%	74%	124.4	78.6	45.8
Tony Parker	25	13.8	0.54	13 Pts (6-12 FG, 1-1 3PT ) 4 Reb (0 Off), 4 Ast, 2 Stl,	22%	59%	127.8	79.0	48.8
Boban Marjanovic	15	13.0	0.87	10 Pts (1-3 FG, 8-8 FT) 7 Reb (2 Off), 4 Blk, 1 Stl, 2 TO, 2 PF	26%	64%	111.4	97.4	14.1
Boris Diaw	25	12.5	0.51	16 Pts (6-10 FG, 2-2 3PT, 2-3 FT) 3 Reb (2 Off), 1 Stl, 2 TO	26%	53%	96.0	95.2	0.8
LaMarcus Aldridge	30	8.5	0.28	12 Pts (6-14 FG, ) 9 Reb (1 Off), 3 Blk, 1 TO, 2 PF	24%	40%	109.1	90.5	18.6
Danny Green	32	8.1	0.25	8 Pts (3-6 FG, 0-1 3PT, 2-2 FT) 4 Reb (1 Off), 1 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 1 PF	11%	55%	120.9	87.5	33.5
Patty Mills	23	6.7	0.30	8 Pts (3-8 FG, 2-4 3PT ) 2 Reb (1 Off), 3 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 1 PF	19%	43%	89.4	102.8	-13.5
Kyle Anderson	15	1.7	0.12	4 Pts (2-5 FG, ) 3 Reb (1 Off), 1 TO	19%	33%	102.1	100.9	1.2
Jonathon Simmons	16	0.2	0.01	0 Pts (0-2 FG, ) , 2 Ast, 2 Stl, 1 TO, 2 PF	9%	23%	87.3	94.6	-7.3
Ray McCallum	1	0.0	0.00	0 Pts ,	0%	0%	0.0	133.3	-133.3
Matt Bonner	0	0.0	0.00	0 Pts ,	0%	0%	0.0	138.9	-138.9

Show Nuggets Players

Player	Min	AdjGS	GS/Min	Line	Usage%	Floor%	OffRtg	DefRtg	NetRtg
Nikola Jokic	26	24.9	0.95	22 Pts (10-19 FG, 1-2 3PT, 1-2 FT) 7 Reb (5 Off), 5 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 Stl, 3 TO, 4 PF	41%	49%	106.5	94.7	11.9
Will Barton	28	18.4	0.66	16 Pts (7-14 FG, 2-5 3PT ) 5 Reb (1 Off), 3 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 1 PF	26%	49%	100.5	112.4	-11.9
Joffrey Lauvergne	22	10.5	0.48	9 Pts (4-9 FG, 1-2 3PT ) 6 Reb (1 Off), 1 Ast,	19%	45%	71.9	128.3	-56.3
Randy Foye	27	9.8	0.36	9 Pts (3-9 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-2 FT) 1 Reb (0 Off), 5 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 TO	20%	43%	102.4	102.8	-0.4
Gary Harris	34	9.2	0.27	10 Pts (4-10 FG, 0-2 3PT, 2-2 FT) 2 Reb (0 Off), 5 Ast, 2 TO, 1 PF	18%	47%	90.7	105.1	-14.3
Kenneth Faried	24	6.1	0.26	8 Pts (4-7 FG, ) 2 Reb (0 Off), 1 Blk, 1 TO, 2 PF	15%	46%	71.6	126.2	-54.6
Kostas Papanikolaou	25	3.2	0.13	2 Pts (1-5 FG, 0-1 3PT ) 4 Reb (1 Off), 2 Ast, 1 Blk, 3 Stl, 3 TO, 1 PF	14%	19%	80.6	108.4	-27.8
Darrell Arthur	20	1.5	0.07	6 Pts (3-6 FG, ) 1 Reb (0 Off), 1 Ast, 1 TO, 5 PF	17%	43%	112.2	90.1	22.1
Mike Miller	13	1.3	0.10	0 Pts 3 Reb (0 Off),	0%	0%	86.9	124.4	-37.5
Jameer Nelson	21	1.0	0.05	4 Pts (2-7 FG, 0-3 3PT ) 5 Reb (0 Off), 3 Ast, 2 TO, 2 PF	20%	30%	75.2	119.9	-44.7

Spurs Index: 98.1 (def.)

Factor	Value	Score
Passing (AST%)	53.8%	26.0
Shooting (eFG%)	52.5%	19.5
Defensive Rebounding (DReb%)	79.5%	20.8
Defense (DefRtg)	89.9	22.3
Opponent % of FGA Uncontested	43.0%	9.5
Total		98.1

Nuggets Spurs Index: 95.5 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