Stat Chat - Round 7, NBL24 (What's Hot and What's Not)

Statistics ... whether you love them or hate them, stats play a huge part in sport.

Whether it's when recruiting a player, how teams prepare, how a starting five is set up, or just about any facet of the game, numbers are crunched and relied upon as fact. 

This year, 2018 NBL Champion and expert commentator Pete Hooley will once again be our resident stats man on NBL.com.au to provide a rundown of all the key numbers heading into a new round of games.  

Keep an eye out after every round for the latest edition of 'Stat Chat'. 

What’s Hot – 50
For a team that only scored 72 points on the night, a major positive to come out of Adelaide's loss to Tasmania was that 50% of those came from the bench unit. In fact if you look strictly at the +- on the night, the bench significantly outplayed the starters.

What’s Not – 2
It was a tough offensive night in a variety of ways for Adelaide, but the 36ers only having two players score in double figures was the standout. With Trey Kell III a late out there were concerns about where the scoring would come from outside of DJ Vasiljevic, and by the end of the game you could see why. 

Alex Starling.

What’s Hot – 1
One of the major reasons why the Bullets were able to put up 51 points in the first half against Sydney was the fact that they only turned the ball over one time in the first half. For a team that has had their troubles with ball security, that was an incredibly impressive first 20 minutes of execution. It’s even more impressive when you look at how disruptive the Kings have been with their switching defence in NBL24.

What’s Not – 3:13
The Bullets played too well to end a game this poorly. With 3:13 on the clock, they led the Kings 95-89 and looked set to come away with a big road win. Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to score a single point in that remaining time and couldn't get a stop at the other end. Eventually they lost by nine.

Josh Bannan.

What’s Hot – 3
This Cairns team is still a work in progress as they await a full strength team for the first time this season. Whilst their offence continues to figure things out, Adam Forde would be thrilled with what they’re managing to do on the defensive end. The Taipans held the Hawks to under 20 points in three quarters on Saturday night. The only quarter they didn’t, the Hawks scored 20 on the dot.

What’s Not – 9
Free points. When you are a team that gets to the free-throw line a lot, knocking them down at a high rate is imperative. Cairns started the game just 1 of 6 from the stripe and went on to miss nine free-throws across the game. There wasn’t a single player who was 100 per cent from the line.

Taran Armstrong.

What’s Hot – 2
In two games against Cairns this season, Sam Froling has had two double-doubles. In fact, he’s looked border unstoppable in both matches against the Taipans in NBL24. Just a few weeks ago he had 16 and 13 in just 24 minutes, and followed that 18 and 10 on Saturday night. If it’s not already clear, the Hawks are a much better team when he’s a focal point offensively and understand how good he really is.

What’s Not – 71
The Hawks slumped to their worst offensive output on the season scoring just 71 points on Saturday night. At one point it looked unlikely that they would even score 60, as they missed a bunch of wide open looks and then compounded that with 13 turnovers.

Sam Froling.

What’s Hot – 53
It was business as usual for the ladder leaders in the Throwdown. Heavily undermanned, United were led by two of the best in the business to a big win. Jo Lual-Acuil Jr and Chris Goulding combined for a whopping 53 points in this one and showcased just why this team is the favourite to win it all. Is the MVP calibre JLA officially back?

What’s Not – 7
It was a tale of two halves in terms of rebounding for United. In the second half Melbourne gave up seven offensive rebounds to the Phoenix, after they allowed just three in the opening 20 minutes. They were missing Luke Travers, who is a big out in terms of rebounding, but still had JLA, Ariel Hukporti and Kyle Bowen (who had 16 rebounds last week).

Jo Lual-Acuil Jr

What’s Hot – 11
There’s something about second quarters and Anthony Lamb that is just working right now. Lamb had 11 points in just six minutes during the second quarter against Perth, including two threes. That’s following up on his exceptional second quarter against Sydney the week prior. Lamb is providing a huge spark for New Zealand off the bench, now he just needs more teammates to come along with him.

What’s Not – 12
It wasn’t so much the fact that the Breakers gave up 12 made threes to Perth, it was the way they did it. If you go back and watch every single made three from the Wildcats, there wasn’t too many that were contested. They were trying a bunch of different defences, but the zone had a lot of breakdowns that left Bryce Cotton wide open, who ended the game with six threes himself.

Anthony Lamb.

What’s Hot – 3
The Wildcats dominated from start to finish against the Breakers. Their defence has found a renewed energy and they're starting to score at will. Most impressively, they won the rebound count in this one and also managed to score 94 with just three turnovers for the entire game. I know the Breakers were playing a zone and very passively at times, but if you’re only turning it over three times a game you’re in the box seat to come away with a win.

What’s Not – 3
It’s not so much a bad thing but more something that is worth watching in the next few weeks. The Wildcats had just three fast break points in their win against New Zealand. There seems to be a particular focus on slowing things down for Perth and not surprisingly, get some looks for Cotton and Pinder and everyone else fill the gaps. If it ain't broke, don’t fix it.

Bryce Cotton.

What’s Hot – +45
The Phoenix have a nice mix of superstars and role players who have paved the way for their early season success. It might not show up on the stat sheet every game but Craig Moller has been a revelation for South East Melbourne this season in terms of his impact on games. Moller sits 10^th in the league for overall +- on the season at +45, whilst no other teammate is in the top 25. His defence has been great but he has a knack for getting his hands on a lot of offensive rebounds to create second chances.

What’s Not – 3
It hasn’t been a good run of games for star Alan Williams in terms of foul trouble, as he’s fouled out in three straight games now. He’s arguably the most important player for this Phoenix team, especially when you look at how they play without him.

Craig Moller.

What’s Hot – 15
The flip side to the Bullets' disarray in the final three minutes is the positive here for the Kings who went on a 15-0 run to win. It’s not just one player either, they have multiple players who can come up big when it matters most and they’re switching defence is starting to really cause some issues to teams. Don’t look now but the Kings are coming.

What’s Not – 11
They’re a team designed to play fast and shoot a lot of threes and that was particularly evident in this first quarter. The Kings took 11 threes in the opening 10 minutes and they only hit two. It meant they got off to a slow start and were forever chasing until the final quarter where they came good.

DJ Hogg.

What’s Hot – 9
A lot of talk this season has rightly been about Milton Doyle and Jordon Crawford, but maybe it’s time we give the role players some love for how good they have been early. The JackJumpers had nine players hit the scoresheet in thier win over Adelaide and continued to show how good true team basketball can be when they’re up and about.

What’s Not – 9
Tasmania welcomed back Will Magnay, which was well overdue but they still got beat up on the glass by Adelaide, losing the count by 9. It will take some time to figure it all out as they incorporate such a big piece back into the line-up, yet it’s vital for their success to get him up to speed as soon as possible. Not just for the rebound count but for their defensive identity to be as good as it needs to be.

Will Magnay.