ESPN Stats: Lakers Most Clutch Team in League

[Draper]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_ ... the-clutch

According to this ESPN article the Lakers have the best +/- with less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter or overtime with neither team ahead by more than five points.

The Lakers have by far the best Crunch Time +/- this season (+79, the Pacers are second at +65). Pau Gasol (+78) has been their biggest star, followed closely by Andrew Bynum (+74). Kobe Bryant ranks third at +58.

I've never put much into the +/- stat but found this interesting. Our team defense is probably a big help in this category plus the fact that are guys are familiar with each other and don't panic down the stretch.

[dockingsched]

beat me to it.

also of note is that mike brown's teams have led the league 5 straight seasons (not counting the yr he didn't coach)

here's the vid where they discuss it.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_ ... utch-stats


and regarding pau (+78) and bynum (+74), how the heck are they so far ahead of kobe's +58? i know kobe almost always plays down the stretch, so has it been these last handful of games that were close with the lakers pulling it out?

[Imadogg]

I remember in the first half of the season, we were one of the worst Lakers clutch teams I have ever seen. This makes us being #1 now in clutch +/- an even bigger deal.

[Draper]

beat me to it.

also of note is that mike brown's teams have led the league 5 straight seasons (not counting the yr he didn't coach)

here's the vid where they discuss it.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_ ... utch-stats


and regarding pau (+78) and bynum (+74), how the heck are they so far ahead of kobe's +58? i know kobe almost always plays down the stretch, so has it been these last handful of games that were close with the lakers pulling it out?

I was wondering the same thing.

@ Phoenix -- We were down big so it wouldn't qualify for "clutch".
@ New Orleans -- Down 80-84, came back to win 93-91. (+6)
@ San Antonio -- We were up big, doesn't qualify.
Denver -- Up 89-87, ended up winning 103-97. (+4)
Dallas -- 5 minutes left in regulation we're down 90-91, final score 112-108. (+5)

So gives us a +15 in this stretch without Kobe. I'm even more impressed because I forgot how close the NO and Denver games were at the end. Says a lot about this team playing well in close games without Kobe.

[The Skyhook]

Another example of why this team should rely on its bigs. The size advantage that the Lakers have against other teams is overwhelming.

[Imadogg]

I would assume Kobe plays almost every, if not every, close last 5min of a game he's in. So if we counted only games he plays, Pau/Bynum would have better +/- when Kobe is in the game and we're falling behind a bit, and they come in and help catch up/strengthen a lead.

Also in the last few games to fix up Draper's numbers by a tiny bit, vs Dallas I believe it would be +7 since with 5min left we were down 3 and scored to make it 90-91, and vs Nuggets it would be +5 because the last few min were past the within 5 points qualifier.



And also, I've never liked the definition for this clutch stat

[Edrees]

We are probably dead last in giving up 10-20 pt leads after the first or second quarter though, making us completely unclutch from a different standard.

[hermes]

i'm putting this all on mike brown's coaching

we would not be where we are now without him

[XXIV]

We are probably dead last in giving up 10-20 pt leads after the first or second quarter though, making us completely unclutch from a different standard.

At least we're winning most of those games.

[Base]

Lakers have been in this situations when they shouldn't have...like the Hornets games, where we should have blew them out.

Don't really like this stat and for teams like the Heat, it's mostly a non-issue since they are winning by 8-10 points a night.

[One Love]

KB24... Nuff said...

[crazyeights]

Lakers have been in this situations when they shouldn't have...like the Hornets games, where we should have blew them out.

Don't really like this stat and for teams like the Heat, it's mostly a non-issue since they are winning by 8-10 points a night.

Exactly. This stat is because we only have a point differential of +2.0... I know Mike Brown has us at a slow pace purposefully, being that we're old and that's a more playoff-type pace, but a +/- clutch stat favors teams who don't have blowouts. Would be more interested in percentages of wins in close games.

[miggs]

Easy to boost up clutch stats when any team knows they can make it interesting against us. I feel I've seen far too many games go to the wire this year.