A couple of weeks ago, after a bunch of pre-game beers, a friend and I were at the Knicks-Clippers game and noticed that the Knicks home scorekeeper crediting a couple of very dubious assists. We started arguing about how reliable NBA assist stats are, and decided to test the theory that scorekeepers are essentially handing out assists willy-nilly. Our method was far from scientific, but we looked at a couple of box scores that included big assist numbers by a specific player and found some pretty glaring inconsistencies. For instance, two years ago in the Celtics sweep of the Knicks, Rajon Rondo put up a 15 point, 11 rebound, 20 assist triple double.
However, if you look at that game log, something doesn't add up. The C's scored 113 points total, which included 15 points on free throws. You can also eliminate the 15 points that Rondo scored himself. That leaves 83 unaccounted for points. From there, by examining the game log play-by-play (http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201104220NYK.html) you can see that according to the official scorer, the Celtics scored 39 points on baskets that were either unassisted or assisted by players other than Rondo (and not scored by Rondo himself). That means that Rondo's 20 assists accounted for 44 points, which isn't a problem in and of itself, until you consider that the game log claims Rondo assisted on 8 three pointers. Do the math, and somehow you are left with Rondo's other 12 assists only accounting for 20 points.
Earlier that year, the Celtics played the Knicks at home, and Rondo put up a line of 18 points, 17 rebounds, and 20 assists. The Celtics scored 115 total points, and made 18 free throws. That leaves 79 unaccounted for points. The Celtics scored 37 points on either unassisted baskets or baskets assisted on by somebody other than Rondo, leaving 42 unaccounted for points. According to the game log (http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/pbp/201203040BOS.html) he assisted on 6 threes, which means his other 14 assists only accounted for 24 points.
Which is all just to say: NBA's official assist stats make no sense.
To be clear, I'm not trying to claim that Rondo is the only guy in the league benefiting from such things, and I don't even think this necessarily means much, but I find it sort of crazy that official game logs don't even make mathematical sense. I also have a feeling that if you went back and looked at some other big assist games, that you'd find other instances where assist totals just don't make sense. Further, this isn't exactly news: everybody knows that home scorekeepers have a tendency to be very generous with assists, I just always figured it was more of the "credit a player with an assist on a routine inlet pass even though the player who caught the pass took 5 dribbles, made a basketball move, and created the shot himself" variety.
Disclaimer: It's also entirely possible I'm an idiot and am just missing something really obvious here.
However, if you look at that game log, something doesn't add up. The C's scored 113 points total, which included 15 points on free throws. You can also eliminate the 15 points that Rondo scored himself. That leaves 83 unaccounted for points. From there, by examining the game log play-by-play (http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201104220NYK.html) you can see that according to the official scorer, the Celtics scored 39 points on baskets that were either unassisted or assisted by players other than Rondo (and not scored by Rondo himself). That means that Rondo's 20 assists accounted for 44 points, which isn't a problem in and of itself, until you consider that the game log claims Rondo assisted on 8 three pointers. Do the math, and somehow you are left with Rondo's other 12 assists only accounting for 20 points.
Earlier that year, the Celtics played the Knicks at home, and Rondo put up a line of 18 points, 17 rebounds, and 20 assists. The Celtics scored 115 total points, and made 18 free throws. That leaves 79 unaccounted for points. The Celtics scored 37 points on either unassisted baskets or baskets assisted on by somebody other than Rondo, leaving 42 unaccounted for points. According to the game log (http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/pbp/201203040BOS.html) he assisted on 6 threes, which means his other 14 assists only accounted for 24 points.
Which is all just to say: NBA's official assist stats make no sense.
To be clear, I'm not trying to claim that Rondo is the only guy in the league benefiting from such things, and I don't even think this necessarily means much, but I find it sort of crazy that official game logs don't even make mathematical sense. I also have a feeling that if you went back and looked at some other big assist games, that you'd find other instances where assist totals just don't make sense. Further, this isn't exactly news: everybody knows that home scorekeepers have a tendency to be very generous with assists, I just always figured it was more of the "credit a player with an assist on a routine inlet pass even though the player who caught the pass took 5 dribbles, made a basketball move, and created the shot himself" variety.
Disclaimer: It's also entirely possible I'm an idiot and am just missing something really obvious here.
