Study Hall: Kawhi goes hunting for Grizzlies

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Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs shrugged off a sluggish start to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 103-83. Kawhi Leonard does not apologize.

By JohnCarr Dec 4, 2015, 6:38pm CST

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Spurs 103, Grizzlies 83 - Dec 3, '15

Round 2 of the Spurs-Grizzlies slugfest commenced at the Grindhouse Thursday night, and though the home team got in a few punches early, it was the good guys who slowly pulled away after tightening up their defense and moving the ball with their usual surgical precision. Everyone loves a big win on the road against a potential Western Conference playoff team, so of course I'm going to be the wet blanket on the Spurs' 103-83 victory for a moment.

The Spurs got off to a sloooow start. With still over six minutes to go in the first quarter, the starting five combined to shoot just 3-11 and had already allowed 10 points in the paint. Despite the reputations of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph as hulking behemoths who dwell in the painted area like trolls dwell in caves, Memphis has been scoring in the paint at a below average rate this season. The starters looked out of sorts on both ends of the floor, and Pop wasted no time in yanking the leash and inserting the bench in an attempt to liven things up on the floor. (The good news? Our second five is better than your second five, nanny-nanny boo-boo.)

After allowing the Grizzlies uncontested looks on just 37.8% of their shots in their first meeting, that number shot up to 53.8% Thursday night. Part of this may be scheme-related: mastery of the intangibles is the Spurs Way after all, and we've seen them allow many an open Grizz shooter to fire away from deep over the years. The Spurs are content to live by the law of averages, and it's obvious that will typically play against the revolving door of Memphis non-shooters. But I'm not sure that all of those open looks Memphis had were by design - Mike Conley and Mario Chalmers are capable long-range shooters, and they had a few wide-open opportunities that looked more like poor rotations by the defense as opposed to deliberate non-rotations.

I can also guarantee that Pop is displeased by the number of free throws that Memphis took. Since forever and always, the Spurs do not want to put teams on the free throw line. This is Popovich-ian Principles 101 stuff. The 25 attempts that San Antonio gave up is more than the Sixers average. Put another way - that's not good.

Kawhi Leonard, though.

The Wreaker of Havoc, the Destroyer of Dreams, Kawhi Leonard has descended upon the NBA this year and is leaving blackness (and silver-ness) in his wake. Not only do his hands get a piece of every basketball within a 20-mile radius of the arena, now they apparently shoot fireballs too. A career-high seven three-pointers gave him a team-high Floor Percentage of 70% with a Usage Percentage of only 22%. The man scored 27 points on only 13 shots from the field and only shot two free throws.

Manu Ginobili and Patty Mills continue to make beautiful music together, posting the highest and second-highest Net Rating respectively of any Spur who played over 20 minutes, and the Spurs assisted on 68% of their made FGs. Also, Tony Parker seems to be settling into his role as the team's third scorer quite efficiently. My question: when do seamless transitions from superstar-to-superstar begin to get old?

Unfortunately, though we live in this era of SportVU, smart phones, and general high-tech wizardry, I was unable to locate any advanced statistical data detailing Kawhi's post-game interview with Craig Sager, but the eye-test tells me that it was... just fantastic.

And finally, with all of the picking of nits from a 20-point blowout victory and the endless talk about Kawhi Leonard and his ascent into the basketball heavens, lost in the shuffle is the true hero of this game: Matt Bonner! Check out that Per-Minute Adjusted Game Score!!! Ka-who Leonard?! Matt Bonner is clearly and unequivocally the answer to any question you could ever think to ask.

The Spurs have the night off before the Celtics and Brad Stevens (aka Pop-Lite) come into town on Saturday - so as always, Go Spurs Go!

Four Factors (def.)

	Spurs	Grizzlies
Shooting (eFG%)	56%	39%
Ball Handling (TO%)	16%	12%
Off Rebounding (OR%)	26%	19%
Shooting FTs (FT Rate)	23%	31%

Team Stats (Definitions at bottom of post)

	Spurs	Grizzlies
Pace (No. of Possessions)	93.0
Points Per Possession (PPP)	1.11	0.89
Points Per Shot (PPS)	1.29	1.04
2-PT FG%	48.4%	43.8%
3-PT FG%	55.6%	12.5%
FT%	72.2%	84.0%
True Shooting %	58.6%	45.6%

	Spurs	Grizzlies
Offensive Rating	110.8	89.2
Defensive Rating	89.2	110.8
Net Rating	21.6	-21.6

	Spurs	Grizzlies
Passes / poss.	3.3	2.8
% of FGA uncontested	45.0%	53.8%
Points in the paint	40	46
Second chance points	11	10
Fast break points	15	13

	Spurs	Grizzlies
Assists	27	19
Steals	8	6
Turnovers	15	11
Ball Control Index (BCI) (Assists + Steals) / TO	2.33	2.27

	Spurs	Grizzlies
Expected Offensive Rebounds	9.5	11.8
Offensive Rebounds	10	9
Difference	0.5	-2.8

Spurs Shot Chart

Grizzlies Shot Chart

Players (Definitions at bottom of post, columns sortable)

Spurs

Player	Min	AdjGS	GS/Min	Line	Usage%	Floor%	OffRtg	DefRtg	NetRtg
Kawhi Leonard	33	31.3	0.95	27 Pts (9-13 FG, 7-9 3PT, 2-2 FT) 8 Reb (0 Off), 3 Ast, 1 Blk, 2 Stl, 1 TO, 2 PF	22%	70%	115.4	89.3	26.1
Tony Parker	24	19.1	0.81	17 Pts (8-12 FG, 1-2 FT) 7 Reb (3 Off), 5 Ast, 1 TO, 2 PF	28%	67%	98.5	86.1	12.4
LaMarcus Aldridge	33	15.0	0.46	18 Pts (7-14 FG, 4-6 FT) 4 Reb (2 Off), 3 Blk, 1 TO, 1 PF	27%	52%	121.6	97.3	24.3
Tim Duncan	31	12.6	0.40	6 Pts (3-6 FG, ) 10 Reb (1 Off), 5 Ast, 3 Blk, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 3 PF	11%	56%	109.4	88.4	21.0
Manu Ginobili	22	11.9	0.53	13 Pts (4-7 FG, 2-2 3PT, 3-4 FT) 3 Reb (0 Off), 4 Ast, 1 Stl, 3 TO, 2 PF	25%	53%	113.9	72.4	41.5
David West	7	4.2	0.57	6 Pts (3-5 FG, ) 1 Reb (1 Off), 1 Stl, 1 TO, 2 PF	36%	47%	114.2	63.9	50.3
Matt Bonner	4	4.2	0.95	5 Pts (2-4 FG, 1-1 3PT ) 2 Reb (1 Off), 1 Stl, 1 TO, 1 PF	51%	38%	114.2	102.7	11.4
Jonathon Simmons	8	3.3	0.41	3 Pts (1-1 FG, 1-2 FT) 3 Reb (0 Off), 2 Ast, 1 TO, 2 PF	16%	61%	102.3	122.4	-20.1
Kyle Anderson	15	3.1	0.21	0 Pts (0-2 FG, ) 2 Reb (1 Off), 4 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 PF	6%	50%	98.8	90.2	8.6
Patty Mills	20	2.1	0.10	4 Pts (2-6 FG, 0-3 3PT ) 2 Reb (0 Off), 2 Ast, 2 Stl, 2 TO, 2 PF	18%	31%	125.2	89.6	35.6
Boris Diaw	14	-0.6	-0.04	2 Pts (1-4 FG, ) 3 Reb (0 Off), 1 TO	15%	19%	91.1	81.6	9.5
Boban Marjanovic	4	-0.9	-0.25	0 Pts (0-1 FG, ) 1 Reb (0 Off), 1 PF	11%	0%	103.1	101.7	1.3
Danny Green	25	-2.2	-0.09	2 Pts (0-5 FG, 0-3 3PT, 2-2 FT) 2 Reb (1 Off), 2 Ast, 2 TO, 2 PF	15%	24%	112.4	97.2	15.2

Show Grizzlies Players

Player	Min	AdjGS	GS/Min	Line	Usage%	Floor%	OffRtg	DefRtg	NetRtg
Mike Conley	28	18.1	0.64	15 Pts (5-13 FG, 0-2 3PT, 5-5 FT) 5 Reb (1 Off), 4 Ast, 2 Blk, 1 TO, 1 PF	28%	53%	91.2	106.3	-15.1
Marc Gasol	34	17.5	0.52	15 Pts (7-11 FG, 1-2 FT) 8 Reb (2 Off), 2 Ast, 3 Blk, 2 Stl, 5 TO, 3 PF	25%	44%	87.9	111.6	-23.7
Mario Chalmers	20	17.2	0.87	15 Pts (3-11 FG, 1-6 3PT, 8-8 FT) 5 Reb (2 Off), 2 Ast, 2 Stl, 1 TO, 3 PF	34%	51%	87.5	114.2	-26.7
Jeff Green	27	7.9	0.30	10 Pts (4-11 FG, 1-2 3PT, 1-2 FT) 2 Reb (0 Off), 2 Ast,	21%	42%	87.2	112.8	-25.6
Zach Randolph	29	7.3	0.25	9 Pts (4-10 FG, 1-2 FT) 6 Reb (3 Off), 1 Ast, 1 TO, 2 PF	20%	39%	81.4	100.7	-19.3
James Ennis	6	7.0	1.18	3 Pts (0-1 FG, 0-1 3PT, 3-4 FT) 2 Reb (0 Off), 1 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 Stl,	19%	67%	110.5	102.0	8.5
Matt Barnes	20	4.2	0.20	4 Pts (1-3 FG, 0-1 3PT, 2-2 FT) 2 Reb (0 Off), 2 Ast, 1 TO, 1 PF	12%	51%	76.7	108.5	-31.8
JaMychal Green	13	3.4	0.26	4 Pts (2-4 FG, 0-1 3PT ) 3 Reb (1 Off), 1 Ast, 4 PF	14%	54%	94.7	121.2	-26.5
Courtney Lee	31	2.3	0.07	6 Pts (3-9 FG, 0-2 3PT ) 1 Reb (0 Off), 2 Ast, 1 TO	15%	34%	90.0	115.6	-25.6
Russ Smith	4	1.0	0.23	2 Pts (1-2 FG, ) , 1 Ast, 1 TO	34%	40%	102.7	114.2	-11.4
Vince Carter	11	-0.3	-0.03	0 Pts (0-2 FG, 0-1 3PT ) 1 Reb (0 Off), 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 PF	8%	18%	115.5	129.4	-13.9
Tony Allen	17	-2.7	-0.16	0 Pts (0-3 FG, ) 2 Reb (0 Off), 1 PF	9%	0%	87.7	101.2	-13.5

Spurs Index: 104.8 (def.)

Factor	Value	Score
Passing (AST%)	67.5%	32.6
Shooting (eFG%)	56.3%	20.9
Defensive Rebounding (DReb%)	80.9%	21.2
Defense (DefRtg)	89.2	22.4
Opponent % of FGA Uncontested	53.8%	7.6
Total		104.8

Grizzlies 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