Sports Staturday - February 15, 2025
Welcome to Sports Staturday. A little weekly blogcast to flow through some takes while running stats on relevant and irreverent topics in the past week of sports. I'm hoping to dig my feet into cornering the market on Saturday morning sports content. Easily the absolute worst time slot in the book, but my hope is to gain readership for those looking for something to do while hungover in bed or sipping the milk from their Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And with all the sports data I continue to work on hoarding, you're sure to learn something new that you will never be able to use or apply in the future. Like trigonometry.
Anyway, enjoy. This is Sports Staturday.
Let's start with the end. The end of the 2024 football season. Not a soul saw the Eagles dismantling the back-to-back champs by running up the score 34-0 before the 4th quarter. What many did see coming though was the awful offensive pass interference on fourth down on the deep dime drop on the Eagles first drive. Let's just say the entre "NFL is rigged" congregation (me included) were beside ourselves.
There was one or two other balls blatantly wrong against the Eagles early on but this ended up being countered by equally ridiculous calls on the Chiefs. None more pathetic and meaningful than the roughing the passer on the Eagles second drive that soon after ended in the games first touchdown.
So where are we as NFL rigged contingents supposed to pivot in light of this? What if we don't want to take the tin foil hats off just yet? I think I have the angle. Don't give up yet everyone! Let's move this goal post just a little bit. Consider this. What use did the NFL have for the Chiefs at this point? There was really no reason to prop them up anymore since there was no other game to advance to. The terrible pass interference was just a fluke as evidenced by the other terrible calls that went against KC. This idea also explains the blowout. Once the bumper bowling lanes are taken away, and the Chiefs were forced to play fair, they got swamp walked in the Bayou.
But this is all just crazy conspiracy with no data. Last I checked this was a stats blog. Certainly there's no data to back this theory up is there?
Patrick Mahomes had his worst first half average EPA per drop back in the Super Bowl after recording his third best ever in the AFC Championship
I fully realize this discredits how absolutely dominating the Philadelphia Eagles were in every facet of the Super Bowl (even kicking for God sake). But this is now a fun little conspiracy with some loose data to back it up. Mahomes just had his third best average EPA per drop back in the AFC Championship game before posting his worst by over four standard deviations. If there's one thing to know about statistics it's that four standard deviations is absurd.
That's enough pivoting conspiracy theories for now (never give up the fight!). Let's pivot to basketball and get a glimpse of some super important things going on in the NBA.
The Washington Wizards are the first team in NBA history to play at least nine players with all players played scoring double figures and still managing to lose
Spurs 131. Wizards 121.
Looks like equity and inclusion is still alive and well in DC. Another weird fact from this boxscore is that every bench player on the Wizards had a positive plus/minus, while every starter was negative. I'm going to go on a limb and say there was some garbage time scoring late out of the reserves because believe me when I tell you, I in fact did NOT watch this game.
Looking back at the data, there have been a handful of teams in which every player (minimum nine players) that played for a team scored double-figures. Shoutout 1980 Sonics for doing this with ten players.
But no one lost with nine players involved. Eight? There's a few. Last one being the Hornets last season on April 7 vs OKC.
That's enough equity and inclusion talk. Let's go to a red region where thinking only about yourself is rewarded.
Kyrie Irving scored 42-points in a game while offering zero assists.
Big win Wednesday night in a battle between two teams who made win-now moves at the trade deadline with Dallas visiting Golden State. Dallas made a strong push close the first half of the regular season despite all the negative chatter in the wake of the Luka trade. Here's how they managed to stay performing:
Back to Kyrie. That's who this stat is about. Kyrie did it all for the Mavericks vs the Warriors which meant he had nothing to leave for his teammates in the assist department. But hey - they got the win despite being a heavy dog. All thanks to the most maverick of Mavericks, Kyrie Irving.
In case you're wondering, 42-points isn't even close to the record for most points scored with zero assists. 73 is the record and I bet you can guess who would be capable doing such a thing while thinking of others so little. Mr. Records himself - Wilt Chamberlain (1/13/1962). Since this is a stats blog let's run through a few more notable names of the many who out-mavericked Kyrie:
- Kobe Bryant: 62 points / 0 assists (12-20-2005)
- Carmelo Anthony 62 points / 0 assists (1-24-2014)
- Klay Thompson 52 points / 0 assists (10-29-2018)
- Michael Jordan 50 points / 0 assists (11-6-1996)
Speaking of Mr. Records himself. Not only did he top this list with 73, but he scored more than 42-points with zero assists a total of 20 times in his career. TWENTY!
Now that you just won the Super Bowl Philadelphia, let's laugh at how the 76ers recently blew a 26-point lead
The great thing about winning a championship with one of your teams is that you can laugh off the utter failings of another. Sometimes a little comedic humor is good for the soul. And the 76ers can be that team for Philadelphia. Right now they're battling the Bulls for that coveted 10 spot in the East. A spot Chicago might have legally obtained squatters rights on.
Still, there's no shame in losing to the champion Boston Celtics. Except when you were up by 26 in the third quarter. That's not great. But again, you just won the Super Bowl Philly. You're on top of the world and can look at this list of all teams this season who led by 26 in the third quarter and laugh off being the only team to blow the lead.
In fairness, blowing leads happens all the time in the NBA. Even 26-point third quarter leads aren't as rare as this list makes it seem. I found 27 others going back to 2022 with the most recent being the Cavaliers blowing one to the Clippers last year on April 7.
Speaking of the Chicago Bulls…
Pop quiz. When was the last time a team scored less than the Bulls' 29-points last Tuesday night?
A) ha - never happened. No way. No how.
B) Well, not since the shot clock era anyway
C) November 11, 1950 (Fort Wayne Pistons scored 11 points)
D) Last December 1st - Pelicans vs Knicks (DING DING!)
At least you got to host the Super Bowl New Orleans. And you kept the offensive coordinator of the winning team in town to become your new head coach. Shoutout Charlotte Hornets for staying clear of this insult stat. No need to mention they had two 29-point first halves within a four-day span last season (2-23 and 2-27).
What's going on in Miami these days? Everyone having fun in the sun?
Four teams have scored less than ten points in any quarter this NBA season. Three of them are the Miami Heat
The dilapidated Miami Heat petered out of Wednesday night's game vs the Thunder with an eight-point fourth quarter. This tied for the lowest scoring quarter of the season going back to December 21st when… well… the Heat did it again vs the Magic. You will not be surprised to learn they lost all three of these games, but what makes it all really sad is that their only company in this sad stat (OKC on February 3rd) obliterated the Bucks by 29 even after playing what we might call a "offensive indifference" fourth quarter.
The only way that could have been more sad is if OKC played the Heat in that game. So, there's that, at least.
That's it for this week.