TPM™ 2022-'23 Game #12 vs Boston

Nuggets vs Celtics:

"Massacred Massholes"

Pregame thoughts:

Tonight promises to be a tough one, as the two hottest teams in the league square off in Bean-town, both riding four game winning streaks.

Denver will benefit from the absence of defensive ace Robert Williams and calming-influence Malcolm Brogdon, for the Celtics.

What I want to see more than anything tonight is for Grant Williams to foul out in attempting to guard Joker, so that the ridiculous "Bat Man" meme which negative-attention-farming-muse attempted to attach to Williams last year (after a night in which he never once guarded MVP without a double-team) can be cremated.

Boston is likely a top two team in the Leastern conference (along with Milwaukee), but they suffer from an insurmountable obstacle in the playoffs, in that their one-dimensional offense is entirely dictated by weather or not streaky-shooting-stars Tatum & Brown can be hot at the same time. This occurred often enough to get them to the dance last year, but proved unsustainable against the more team-oriented choreography of the Warriors.

Having said all of that, Boston at home is not a game the Nuggets or anyone else should ever expect to win, so for the first time this year, I'm predicting defeat for the good guys, to the tune of 109-105.

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 12 BOS

Nikola Jokić: +19

Jamal Murray: +16

Michael Porter Jr: +1

Aaron Gordon: +9

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: +6

Bones Hyland: N/A

Bruce Brown: +21

Jeff Green: +1

Davon Reed: +3

DeAndre Jordan: -4

Zeke Nnaji: +0

Christian Braun: -6

Ish Smith: N/A

Vlatko Cancar: +3

Peyton Watson: N/A

Jack White: N/A

Collin Gillespie: N/A

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Total TPM™

Nikola Jokić: 12 games +400

Jamal Murray: 11 games +174

Michael Porter Jr: 11 games +112

Aaron Gordon: 12 games +171

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: 11 games +94

Bones Hyland: 9 games +113

Bruce Brown: 12 games +108

Jeff Green: 12 games +17

Davon Reed: 7 games -13

DeAndre Jordan: 10 games +28

Zeke Nnaji: 7 games -3

Christian Braun: 11 games +8

Ish Smith: 5 games -1

Vlatko Cancar: 5 games +4

Peyton Watson: 4 games +6

Jack White: 2 games -5

Collin Gillespie: 0 games +0

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Avg. TPM™ Per Game

Nikola Jokić: +33.33

Jamal Murray: +15.80

Michael Porter Jr: +10.18

Aaron Gordon: +14.25

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: +8.55

Bones Hyland: +12.56

Bruce Brown: +9.00

Jeff Green: +1.42

Davon Reed: -1.86

DeAndre Jordan: +2.80

Zeke Nnaji: -0.43

Christian Braun: +0.73

Ish Smith: -0.20

Vlatko Cancar: +0.80

Peyton Watson: +1.50

Jack White: -2.50

Collin Gillespie: +0.00

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Final Thoughts:

Denver loses by a final score of 112-131, and in so doing falls to 7-4 on the season.

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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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