Alright, so I wanted to dig into the stats for that 76ers vs Clippers game the other day. I actually watched most of it, but you know how it is, sometimes the eye test misses things. Needed to see the hard numbers.
Fired up my browser, just went searching for the game’s box score. Took a minute sorting through the usual sports news clutter, but found a page with the full player breakdowns. You gotta click around a bit sometimes, they don’t always put it front and center.
Checking the Basics
First glance, obviously checked the final score to confirm. Then my eyes jumped straight to the main guys. For the Sixers, had to see what Embiid put up. Points, rebounds, the usual. Then scanned over to see who led the Clippers – probably checked Paul George’s or Kawhi’s line first, depending on who played or stood out.
You get a quick feel just from that. Like, okay, Embiid got his 30-something, but did he shoot efficiently? Checked his field goal percentage. Sometimes the big point totals hide a rough shooting night.
Digging a Bit Deeper
After the stars, I started looking at the supporting cast. How did Maxey do? What about Harden’s assists, was he playmaking well? For the Clippers, I always check guys like Norman Powell or Zubac. Powell can swing games off the bench, and Zubac’s rebounding against Embiid is always a key thing to look at.
So I went down the list, player by player, checking:
- Points (PTS) – Obvious one.
- Rebounds (REB) – Who controlled the glass?
- Assists (AST) – Who was moving the ball?
- Shooting percentages (FG%, 3P%, FT%) – Efficiency matters! Seeing 25 points on 10-for-30 shooting tells a different story than 25 points on 10-for-15.
- Turnovers (TOV) – Can’t forget these, often a quiet killer.
- Plus/Minus (+/-) – Gives a rough idea of impact when they were on the floor, though you gotta take it with a grain of salt.
What Stood Out
Didn’t do anything complicated, just reading through the standard box score table. Compared the bench scoring totals side-by-side. That often tells you a lot about depth. Looked at the total team rebounds and turnovers too.
Sometimes you spot weird stuff. Like a role player having a career night shooting, or a star player having way more turnovers than usual. Or maybe the free throw difference was huge. I specifically looked at the matchup stats if they were easily available, like how did the starting point guards fare against each other.
In this case, I remember noticing the difference in three-point shooting efficiency between the teams. One team was just hitting shots, the other wasn’t. And the rebound battle was pretty telling too, looking at the total team boards and who individually crashed the glass.
So yeah, that was my process. Just went online, found the box score, and spent maybe 10-15 minutes scrolling through, comparing the key guys and the team totals. No fancy software, just looking at the numbers provided. It helped confirm some things I thought I saw during the game and highlighted a few other areas, like how the bench units performed against each other.
