Alright y’all, today felt like diving deep into some raw NBA stats, specifically for that Memphis Grizzlies vs Utah Jazz matchup everybody was buzzing about. Kept seeing headlines, but wanted to really see who cooked and what actually mattered.
Started Simple: Opening The Stats Page
Fired up the laptop, grabbed my lukewarm coffee, and headed straight to the NBA’s official stats site. Scrolled past the splashy headlines trying to find the raw player stats table for this particular game. Took a minute, gotta say, their navigation isn’t the smoothest.
Finally found it. Just pages of numbers – points, rebounds, assists, the whole lot. Felt a bit overwhelming at first glance. My brain was like, “Where do you even start?” Needed to focus. Printed it out cause staring at the screen too long makes my eyes blurry. Old habits, I guess.
Digging Deeper: Hunting for Patterns
Spread the sheets across my kitchen table. Grabbed my trusty highlighter and a red pen. Started circling big numbers, stuff that jumped out:
- Ja Morant’s points column practically glowed – dude dropped a load, no surprise.
- But then saw Steven Adams grabbing rebounds like they were free samples. Wow.
- Over for Utah, Lauri Markkanen was lighting it up pretty good too. Consistent.
Felt like looking at puzzle pieces. Points are flashy, sure, but were they the main story? Tallying up each team’s bench points next. Started writing little notes in the margins – “AD impact?” “Bench depth?” “Clutch free throws?”.
Comparing Apples to Apples
This part got gritty. Took Memphis’ starters stats and Utah’s starters stats, put them side-by-side. Then did the same for the guys coming off the bench.
- Memphis starters: Solid, expected production.
- Memphis bench: Woah. Outscored Utah’s bench by way more than I thought. Like, double?
- Utah starters: Held their own, honestly.
- Utah bench: Fell off a cliff, production-wise. That gap felt huge.
Paced my kitchen floor for a minute, looking at the numbers. That bench scoring gap looked massive.
Connecting the Dots: Plus/Minus Doesn’t Lie
Finally checked the +/- column. Numbers usually tell you something sneaky about impact beyond just scoring.
- Some Memphis bench guys had shockingly high + numbers, meaning the team just kept pulling ahead when they were on the floor.
- A few key Utah players, even scorers, had brutal negative ratings. Team tanked when they played.
Sat back down. Stared at the highlighted bench points tally and those big +/- differences for the role players. That’s when it clicked for me. Ja balled out, Lauri was smooth, but the real story hiding underneath? Gritty Memphis bench depth absolutely swallowed Utah’s reserves whole. Changed the whole game flow.
Final Thoughts
Yeah, superstars grab headlines. But tonight? It was the guys you might not notice at first glance who tilted the floor. Memphis’ second unit energy, their defense leading to offense, just demoralized Utah whenever the starters rested. Deep bench saved them. Pretty clear who won the war of attrition right there.
