Welcome to the Boxscores of the week! Every week I run down my picks of the five top boxscores of the week. For good measure, I also look at the bottom three. While production -- we use the Points Over Par metric -- does play a role in who I select, I also allow some subjectivity into my selection. With that in mind, here are our lists!
The Top Five Boxscores of the Week
| Player | Date | Minutes | PTS(TS%) | TRB | AST | TOV | STL | BLK | PF | PoP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 12/14 | 38 | 44(77.9%) | 14 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 16.9 |
| Lonzo Ball | 12/15 | 35 | 16(72.7%) | 10 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 16.5 |
| James Harden | 12/13 | 36 | 50(72.8%) | 10 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 15.2 |
| Paul George | 12/10 | 30 | 31(101.4%) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 16.3 |
| DeAndre Jordan | 12/16 | 30 | 8(57.1%) | 23 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 13.8 |
1. The MVP favorite tops the best game of the week. It was also the best scoring performance of the week, without any threes! Tangent time, the Bucks are also one of the best scoring teams in the NBA with the highest three-point rate. It's almost like some players like Giannis and Simmons can do other stuff instead? Tangent over!
2. Lonzo Ball just missed a five by five by four blocks! A great triple-double that did LeBron James proud in an absolute thumping of the Charlotte Hornets.
3. James Harden scores fifty, makes twelve threes, and gets back on the list! With how the rest of Houston is doing, MVP-Harden is going to have to be the norm in Houston wants to make the playoffs.
4. Paul George with better than perfect scoring makes the list! The four steals weren't half bad either. He's no Kevin Durant, but he's certainly helping out OKC.
5. DeAndre Jordan makes the list for a "double-double" if we count just could his rebounds. I'd assumed this would be a triple-double, but with only eight points it was not to be. Also, the only losing effort on the good games list this week. Sorry, DeAndre!
The Bottom Three Boxscores of the Week
| Player | Date | Minutes | PTS(TS%) | TRB | AST | TOV | STL | BLK | PF | PoP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LeBron James | 12/16 | 32 | 13(34.9%) | 6 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -14.8 |
| Kemba Walker | 12/15 | 25 | 4(15.4%) | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -14.8 |
| Milos Teodosic | 12/13 | 12 | 0(0%) | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -9.2 |
1. Say it ain't so LeBron! The second worst game of the week, and graded on the "LeBron Curve," possibly one of the worst games in NBA history. He'll get em next time.
2. Right before LeBron put up a stinker for the Lakers, Kemba Walker put up a stinker against them. When you can't even get to a three by three without counting turnovers, it was a bad night.
3. Milos Teodosic makes the list for sheer impressiveness of bad play. In only twelve minutes he missed all four shots he took, got three turnovers, and racked up two fouls. I'm honestly kind of sad his two assists kept his Points over Par above -10.
Leaderboard Update
Reminder, for no reason at all, I'm using MVP voting schemes for each week (5 points for 1st, 4 for second, etc. For the bad list it's -3, -2,-1) and at the end of the year, we'll have ... something? Here's how things sit. Minimum of two weeks on either list to count
The Top Boxscores Leaderboard
| Player | Points | List Appearances |
|---|---|---|
| Stephen Curry | 10 | 3 |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 10 | 2 |
| LeBron James | 9 | 3 |
| Nikola Jokic | 9 | 2 |
| De'Aaron Fox | 8 | 2 |
| Anthony Davis | 7 | 2 |
| Boban Marjanovic | 7 | 2 |
| James Harden | 5 | 2 |
| Andre Drummond | 4 | 2 |
| Enes Kanter | 3 | 2 |
Two new names join the list! Giannis and Harden are both MVP players, so I'm glad their names are here. Giannis forced me to decide a tie-breaking procedure for points; tie goes to more appearances on the list. As a result, Curry keeps his lead, but barely.
The "bad list" remains a tie between Carmelo Anthony and Donovan Mitchell. With players like Durant and LeBron taking spots on it, it's going to take a while to justify a leaderboard! We'll just have to wait a little longer.
Alright, those are our lists. As always, let us know in the comments or on Twitter if you have any suggestions. You can also let us know if our selections were wrong, but it's too late to change things now! See you next week!
* Reminder, the Points over Par metric is just the Wins Produced formula translated into point margin. The way to think of it is -- how many points would a team win (or lose) by with our player's performance if they played next to an average team against an average opponent.