Wilt, West & Oscar vs Bill Russell

[lorak]

Playoffs stats from 1959/60 to 1968/69 vs Russell's Celtics and rest of the NBA (note - MPG might be incorrect, because game logs are incomplete here)

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TS%     FG%     FT%     MPG    PPG    RPG    APG   G   player  vs
0,527   0,532   0,444   47,5   27,2   24,5   4,7   49   Wilt   rest
0,517   0,508   0,485   47,4   25,7   28,0   4,1   49   Wilt   BOS
0,590   0,486   0,857   47,0   28,4   8,6   11,0   22   Oscar   rest
0,540   0,436   0,883   46,6   31,4   10,2   7,5   17   Oscar   BOS
0,561   0,491   0,787   40,5   30,0   6,7   5,8   63   West   rest
0,552   0,479   0,839   44,2   33,0   5,7   4,9   38   West   BOS


- Wilt's TS% vs Boston is the worst, but FG% the best

- Wilt played 98 games during that period, 49 were vs Russell, 12 vs Thurmond and 6 vs Reed. That means he played 68% of playoffs games vs elite defenders (Reed, Bill, Nate) and 62% vs arguably GOAT defenders (Bill and Nate). We all should remember about that when we talk about Chamberlain's playoffs production

- Oscar played 35.3% of his playoffs games vs Boston and West 37.6%

- Wilt's teams have 40.8% winning % vs Celtics, West's 36.8% and Robertson's 35.3%

- Oscar strugled vs Celtics, but West's TS% vs BOS was basically the same (54.6) before Wilt arrival to LAL SO my point is - Oscar had less help than West, so Celtics defense was more focused on him than on West (and Oscar didn't play single game vs old Celtics, when they were significantly worse defensively, while West played a lot and had the best series then)

- the best series vs Celtics:

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player   year   PPG   TS%   RPG   APG   BOS DRTG
   
West   1969   37.9   56.6   4.7   7.4   -6.7
Oscar   1963   33.4   57.8   12.4   8.6   -9.1
Wilt   1965   30.1   57.5   31.4   3.3   -10.1


Yes, 31 rebounds per game vs prime Bill Russell...

[ceiling raiser]

Cool research! Thanks for your hard work.

[Vinsanity420]

Good post. Jerry West came up big against the best of defenses, really impressive.

[ceiling raiser]

Two other questions - Do you have the average FTA for each guy? I wonder if the lower TS% for Wilt is due to lower FT% or more attempts vs Boston than usual. Also, how many games against great non-Russ defenders did Oscar/West have during the sample (Nate, Wilt, etc.)?

Also not so much a question but I think you've posted breakdowns including TS% for the three phases of Wilt's career before (I think I've seen them recently). Could you repost the splits (vs Russell, vs everyone else) if you have them? I think then we'd have 100% complete information.

[colts18]

I know this might be too much to ask but could you do TS% relative to opponent Defense TS%? I'm not a huge fan of the TS% relative to league average since you need to adjust for playoff defenses.

[lorak]

Two other questions - Do you have the average FTA for each guy? I wonder if the lower TS% for Wilt is due to lower FT% or more attempts vs Boston than usual.

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player   vs   FTA
Wilt   others   10,7
Wilt   BOS   11,9
Oscar   others   11,7
Oscar   BOS   12,1
West   others   10,5
West   BOS   10,5


Also, how many games against great non-Russ defenders did Oscar/West have during the sample (Nate, Wilt, etc.)?

Oscar 8 games vs Wilt
West 6 vs Thurmond and 24 vs Beaty

Also not so much a question but I think you've posted breakdowns including TS% for the three phases of Wilt's career before (I think I've seen them recently). Could you repost the splits (vs Russell, vs everyone else) if you have them? I think then we'd have 100% complete information.

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      vokume scorer ('60-'66)                     
opp   G   TS%   FG%   PPG   RPG   APG   FTA   MPG
BOS   30   0,522   0,507   30,5   28,7   2,7   12,4   47,3
rest   22   0,518   0,502   36,0   23,2   3,8   12,2   47,8
                        
   passer ('67-'68)                     
opp   G   TS%   FG%   PPG   RPG   APG   FTA   MPG
BOS   12   0,515   0,513   21,9   28,0   8,1   12,2   48,0
rest   16   0,538   0,587   23,2   26,4   7,7   10,8   48,3
                        
   LAL ('69)                     
opp   G   TS%   FG%   PPG   RPG   APG   FTA   MPG
BOS   7   0,471   0,500   11,7   25,0   3,0   9,4   47,3
rest   11   0,545   0,568   15,3   24,5   2,3   7,5   45,5



[ceiling raiser]

Two other questions - Do you have the average FTA for each guy? I wonder if the lower TS% for Wilt is due to lower FT% or more attempts vs Boston than usual.

Code: Select all

player   vs   FTA
Wilt   others   10,7
Wilt   BOS   11,9
Oscar   others   11,7
Oscar   BOS   12,1
West   others   10,5
West   BOS   10,5


Also, how many games against great non-Russ defenders did Oscar/West have during the sample (Nate, Wilt, etc.)?

Oscar 8 games vs Wilt
West 6 vs Thurmond and 24 vs Beaty

Also not so much a question but I think you've posted breakdowns including TS% for the three phases of Wilt's career before (I think I've seen them recently). Could you repost the splits (vs Russell, vs everyone else) if you have them? I think then we'd have 100% complete information.

Code: Select all

      vokume scorer ('60-'66)                     
opp   G   TS%   FG%   PPG   RPG   APG   FTA   MPG
BOS   30   0,522   0,507   30,5   28,7   2,7   12,4   47,3
rest   22   0,518   0,502   36,0   23,2   3,8   12,2   47,8
                        
   passer ('67-'68)                     
opp   G   TS%   FG%   PPG   RPG   APG   FTA   MPG
BOS   12   0,515   0,513   21,9   28,0   8,1   12,2   48,0
rest   16   0,538   0,587   23,2   26,4   7,7   10,8   48,3
                        
   LAL ('69)                     
opp   G   TS%   FG%   PPG   RPG   APG   FTA   MPG
BOS   7   0,471   0,500   11,7   25,0   3,0   9,4   47,3
rest   11   0,545   0,568   15,3   24,5   2,3   7,5   45,5



Thanks! I think this is 100% complete now (until we add more data to nbastats.net ). These files will be very useful for analyzing offensive performance for all three guys. Very definitive posts.