Nuggets vs L's:
"Fuck The Lakers (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)"
Pregame thoughts:
Rumors of MPJ's demise, appear to have been greatly exaggerated. While the media consensus is that he did indeed have a bit of a scare and or flare up, while attempting a layup vs Nurkic in the previous game, many in the media were toeing the line in alluding to his having been injured without stating it outright (why pseudo-report anything in these cases? Oh yeah. Negative-engagement-farming; the Stat Muse special.) but MPJ was seen taking and making threes in today's shoot around, and appearing fluid in doing so. That would of course never be notable otherwise, but speaks volumes in this case. Denver will take zero chances this season, when it comes to the health of MPJ/Murray.In any case, he'll appropriately sit out tonight's game, Bruce Brown will start in his stead, and Adrian Wojnarowski actually reports that the Nuggets are optimistic that MPJ will suit up Friday vs the Jazz. It would seem that for now, crisis has been averted.
As for tonight's game, the winless L's are well-rested (off since Sunday) and utterly desperate for a W. They'll be without Westbrick tonight which under normal circumstances would be an enormous W for the L's, but the problem is that they really don't have a better option, until Dennis Schroeder makes his ill-fitting return to the L's rotation, to never handle the ball at the point guard position.
As always this is a two-man team, and the era of this being a viable strategy has passed L's GM LeBron James by, without him seeming to notice.
Having said that, those two men (he moonlights as a still-sensational ball player) LBJ & AD, are still a force to be reckoned with, as long as they remain healthy.
The L's are elite defensively, and a train wreck on offense. Denver is basically the exact opposite. Something has got to give. I have Denver winning a close one, since the Nuggets weakness (POA defense) is mitigated by LA's lack of penetration from the guard positions, but the L's are desperate, so LBJ should be hyper-focused to play in front of a home-crowd in this transplant-metropolis we call Denver. In the end, the good guys find a way to eke one out, to the tune of 117-113.
(pregame photos courtesy of Denver Nuggets Twitter)
The Good Guys
Their Adversaries
*Red boxes above indicate one notable number (or numbers) to catch my eye for each team
(Open images in a new tab for a closer look. Charts courtesy of ESPN.COM.)
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Data:
TPM™ Game 5 LAL
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Total TPM™
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Avg. TPM™ Per Game
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Final Thoughts:
- Denver wins by a final score of 110-99, and in so doing improves to 3-2 on the season.
-
Westbrook's fault.
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For context pertaining to the statistical aspects of this piece, please open this link: TPM™
A brief statement with regard to this piece on whole: As a means to avoid repeating myself I will include this descriptive diatribe in all TPM posts going forward.
Sure I like statistics; ever since I was a child collecting sports cards and later a pre-teen who ran pre-internet fantasy sports leagues on ink/paper/spreadsheet for the four major US pro-leagues, I've been fascinated by box-score stats, but I'm by no means an expert.
I created TPM, which has been around longer than RPM incidentally and unlike them, I fully disclose my non-proprietary system and I contextualize the action rather than being a boring, mysterious, predictive metric, because it does add immediate and accessible context to what we see and what the numbers indicate, which I like.
While the data is meticulously tracked and demonstrably sound, I'm a creative type, not an engineer. Algorithm is the bane of my existence in fact. I'd far rather approach life with the intrigue of expected surprise than attempt to get to the bottom of why things are the way they are. There are many engineers in my family, so I totally understand that joy can be derived from finding solutions to problems, I just can't relate. It's not fun for me. THIS is for the most part, not fun for me.
Now I'm a 45-year-old man who was born during the season in which the team I love joined the NBA. I happen to have a lifetime of experience with this sport in several capacities, including playing (highly underrated within the writing community) so I understand basketball theory in a way most (by no means all) pundits do not.
I was, in this case, interested in a data-driven approach.
If you are averse to colorful language, this is not the place for you. I have no way of knowing how many people even read this, so I'll not be affected even remotely if you choose not to indulge. For those of you who do, I greatly appreciate your support.
I can be found at @prmorphine on Twitter.
Also, my DIY music production and videos can be heard/seen here if you don't value your ear-balls & eye-drums.
And as always, act like a good person privately and especially in public; even if you are not, and most importantly, fuck the Lakers.
#DoNotBeABranchCovidian
#DoNotBeAnAmmosexual
#FuckTheLakersOneMoreTimeJustForGoodMeasure
#TLDRHashtagsAndSiglines
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