Davis, Lakers drop Wizards

Dec 5, 2022 - 12:00 PM

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The Wizards were helpless against Anthony Davis, who lit them up for 55 points — the second best scoring night of his career.

Davis full numbers were spectacular — 55 points on 22-30 shooting, including 2-3 from three and 9-9 from the free throw line, 17 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 blocks. The Wizards had no answers for Davis’ onslaught, including the Twin Towers lineup they tried in the second half.

Here’s footage of Washington’s defense the past several games:

The Lakers rolled over the Wizards on the strength of Davis’ heroics and an outstanding shooting night from Lonnie Walker IV. LeBron James put up nice glory stats — 29 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, but it came on terrible efficiency that included 5 turnovers. Russell Westbrook had 15 assists...and 6 turnovers.

The Good

• Daniel Gafford played well — 19 points on 9-10 from the floor, plus 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. The Wizards once again had some success with Gafford and Kristaps Porzingis on the floor together. While I thought in preseason that it was a lineup worth trying, I’m not convinced (yet) that the relatively good results are more than a fluke.
• Corey Kispert shot 4-6 from three-point range.
• Kyle Kuzma had a good fourth quarter. Unfortunately for Kuzma and the Wizards, the first three quarters count too.

The Not So Good

• The Wizards defense collapsed. The Lakers have shot poorly from the outside. They connected on the open looks Washington allowed while also bludgeoning the Wizards with 72 points in the paint.
• Deni Avdija’s inability to make shots is a threat to cripple the Wizards offense. Last night, James made no pretense of defending Avdija on the perimeter. He hung back in help position and dared Avdija to shoot. Avdija finished the night 3-11 from the floor and 1-8 from three.
• Will Barton turned in another disastrous performance — 0-5 from the floor and 0-3 from deep.
• Bradley Beal injured his hamstring three-and-a-half minutes into the game and did not return.

At least the cherry blossom uniforms and court looked good.

The Four Factors

Below are the four factors that decide wins and losses in basketball — shooting (efg), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouling (free throws made).

I’ve simplified them a bit. While the factors are usually presented as percentages, I find the raw numbers more useful when analyzing a single game.

The Stats & Metrics

Below are a few performance metrics, including the Player Production Average (PPA) Game Score (very similar to the one I used to call Scoreboard Impact Rating). PPA is my overall production metric, which credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls).

Game Score (GmSC) converts individual production into points on the scoreboard. The scale is the same as points and reflects each player’s total contributions for the game. The lowest possible GmSC is zero.

PPA is a per possession metric designed for larger data sets. In small sample sizes, the numbers can get weird. But some readers prefer it, so I’m including PPA scores as well. Reminder: in PPA, 100 is average, higher is better and replacement level is 45. For a single game, replacement level isn’t much use, and I reiterate the caution about small samples producing weird results.

POSS is the number of possessions each player was on the floor in this game.

PTS = points scored

ORTG = offensive rating, which is points produced per individual possessions x 100. League average last season was 112.0. Points produced is not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as sharing credit when receiving an assist.

USG = offensive usage rate. Average is 20%.

ORTG and USG are versions of stats created by Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver and modified slightly by me. ORTG is an efficiency measure that accounts for the value of shooting, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. USG includes shooting from the floor and free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers.