The Top Five Boxscores of the Week: 10/15 - 10/21

Welcome! Those may recall back in the day I ran a regular segment called "The Top 10 Boxscores of the Week", well it's back! Kind of. First, I'm dropping it to five. In part, this is to make it harder to pick (and also, less work!) Because I want to have my arbitrary grading system, I'll use MVP voting schemes and award 5 points for every 1st place, 4 points for every 2nd place, and so on. At the end of the year, the player with the most points wins ... something? We'll figure it out together! Also, I'll be doing the same with the bottom three boxscores of the week.

Despite the title top and bottom, these will be subjective in selection. While I definitely will use Points over Par to help (how much the player's performance with an average team would have beaten an average team on a neutral court), I'll also look at other stats. I'm a sucker for narrative, triple-doubles, and twenty rebound games! With that, on with the lists!

The Top Five Boxscores of the Week

Player Date Minutes PTS(TS%) TRB(ORB)| AST TOV STL BLK PF PoP
Nikola Jokic 10/20 31 35 (110.5%) 12 (0) 11 0 4 1 3 29.4
Jimmy Butler 10/19 36 33 (95.5%) 7 (2) 3 2 4 2 0 19.9
Anthony Davis 10/17 39 32 (66.4%) 16 (2) 8 1 3 3 5 12.0
Miles Bridges 10/19 14 15 (93.8%) 8 (2) 2 1 0 1 1 11.0
Andre Drummond 10/17 32 24 (52.7%) 20 (9) 2 4 0 1 5 4.4

1. Jokic gets what has to be described as a perfect triple-double. Perfect from the field, an 11-0 assist to turnover ratio and sure, why not add four steals and a block. This was an almost 30 Points over Par performance, which is just ridiculous. Is it too early to say Jokic is the obvious MVP?

2. I was so sure Jimmy Butler was going to be the #1 choice this week. In his debut with Minnesota, he put up an almost 20 Points over Par game. It turns out offseason drama is worth on-court production.

3. Anthony Davis put up a great game against a good team. Boring entry, I know!

4. When I had ten spots to play with, I often liked to do low minute productive games and the top rookie game. Miles Bridges lets me satisfy both. In under fifteen minutes, he put a 15-8 performance. He followed this up with a DNP-CD. So, not sure if he'll be in the Rookie of the Year discussion.

5. Drummond's performance is a far cry from the others, in large part thanks to inefficient shooting. That said, I'm a sucker for 20-20 games, and Drummond was the only candidate this week.

The Bottom Three Boxscores of the Week

Player Date Minutes PTS(TS%) TRB(ORB)| AST TOV STL BLK PF PoP
Klay Thompson 10/16 35 14 (32.8%) 4 (1) 0 2 0 0 3 -12.3
Carmelo Anthony 10/17 27 9 (38.3%) 4 (1) 0 2 0 1 4 -11.2
Donovan Mitchell 10/19 35 19 (39.8%) 2 (1) 3 0 2 0 2 -7.6

1. Klay Thompson is in a contract year and up, in theory, for a big contract. And he wants to stay a Warrior, allegedly. He's not off to a stellar start. He went 5-20 in a game the Warriors almost lost to a Westbrook-less Thunder. Here's hoping he finds his shot soon.

2. Carmelo Anthony was such a horrible pickup by the Rockets. Of course, if they limit his minutes or shots, they could mitigate it. Sadly, in their first loss to the Pelicans, they did neither. Melo got 27 minutes and ten shots in what definitely contributed to a loss. I expect Melo on this list a few more times this season.

3. On this week's Boxscore Geek's Show, Brian noted that, while Jerebko won the game for the Warriors, Mitchell's play hurt the Jazz. And he wasn't wrong. Mitchell's -7.6 PoP performance was worth more than the Warriors' top two performances put together. If Mitchell finds his shot, he could help the Jazz. If he keeps leading the Jazz in shots at his current efficiency? Expect him back on this list.


We'll see you next week! If you have any suggestions for next week's list, let me know in the comments or on Twitter @nerdnumbers. Have a good one!

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