National Basketball Association Playoffs Research Articles

The Heritage Strikes Back: Athlete Activism, Black Lives Matter, and the Iconic Fifth Wave of Activism in the (W)NBA Bubble

On August 26, 2020, the sporting world experienced a monumental return of athlete activism when National Basketball Association (NBA) players executed a boycott of the playoffs as a result of heightened frustration after video evidence of the unjust police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, surfaced on social media on August 23, 2020. NBA players (followed by WNBA players) decided to cease play and enter into discussions with league officials to garner a deal that intertwined the promotion of the Black Lives Matter movement with that of the (W)NBA playoffs; players demanded that the (W)NBA playoffs ground zero for Black Lives Matter promotion and social justice initiatives. As the “fifth wave” of athlete activists stormed the sporting world, their demand for dialogic practices is starkly different than the pioneers of the past, while also aiming to accomplish the general mission of the Heritage—racial equality through athlete activism. This article aims to analyze the new frontier of athlete activism through a Critical Race Theory lens by analyzing the ways in which the implementation of dialogic practices led to one of the most iconic waves of athlete activism in sport history.

Urgent wake up call for the National Basketball Association.

Frequent air travel and the condensed game schedule typical of a National Basketball Association (NBA) team during the season, often results in accompanying sleep disturbances related to sleep length, sleep quality, and sleep timing (with highly harmful impacts on health, both physical and mental). These issues are not only problematic for NBA players, but also the coaches, training staff, and management support. In this narrative review, we summarize the detrimental effects that this travel and game schedule could have on NBA team members' sleep, as well as their physical and mental health. Multiple peer-reviewed articles address the role of sleep in athletic performance and health; however, to date, the literature focused on sleep-related issues that are unique to the NBA schedule is scarce. Firstly, this review addresses the impact of the NBA schedule, outlining the number of games and the travel involved (number of flights, the timing of flights, timings of arrival at destination and hotel); we also outline a typical daily NBA travel schedule, providing the reader a glimpse of what this encompasses. Secondly, we provide a brief overview of sleep science and discuss specific applications related to the NBA. Finally, we provide comment on the unique current situation of the NBA "bubble". Based on this review, there appears to be considerable scope for further investigation of the acute and chronic effects of sleep disturbances concerning the NBA travel and game schedule. Sleep science recommendations need to inform practice, target sleep interventions, and personalized protocols designed to enhance sleep health that can be incorporated at the organizational level.

Inside game effectiveness in NBA basketball

The inside game constitutes an essential aspect of modern basketball, particularly in the National Basketball Association (NBA), in where the best players of the world compete. The purpose of this study was to identify players’ dynamics that increase game performance when using inside pass in the NBA, considering game contextual effects. The sample included 808 inside passes from 25 randomly selected matches of the 2011 NBA Playoffs series. A series of logistic regression analyses were used to analyse passers and receivers’ actions and their effectiveness during inside passes, both isolated and combined. Main results revealed that the interactions combining passer’s previous actions (dribbling or faking) with receiver’s cuts towards the basket achieved the highest offensive effectiveness. Performing screens in favour to the receiver was an effective alternative to increase inside passing options since it reduces the defensive pressure. Furthermore, player’s actions previously passing the ball were further successful if combined and synchronized with the receivers’ displacements, especially when cutting to the basket. This information allows a better understanding of basketball collective strategies, contributing in the design of precise practice tasks and so improving the training process.

Competitive Balance in the NBA Playoffs

The uncertainty-of-outcome hypothesis suggests that, subject to a rooting-interest constraint, fans prefer competitive sporting events with uncertain outcomes. In a logical extension of that preference, professional-sports leagues institute rules, such as reverse-order-of-finish drafts and salary caps, intended to help achieve competitive balance among their franchises. This article analyzes the results of the 34 National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs held since 1984 to determine whether they reflect the competitive imbalance observed for regular-season play, relying on the entropy concept as a measure of uncertainty/information content to do so. It is shown that unlike regular-season competitive balance, playoff entropy has not systematically changed over time. JEL Classifications: D47, D84, Z20, Z21

The Effect of Regular-Season Rest on Playoff Performance Among Players in the National Basketball Association.

Background:There has been speculation that rest during the regular season for players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) improves player performance in the postseason.Purpose:To determine whether there is a correlation between the amount of regular-season rest among NBA players and playoff performance and injury risk in the same season.Study Design:Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.Methods:The Basketball Reference and Pro Sports Transactions archives were searched from the 2005 to 2015 seasons. Data were collected on players who missed fewer than 5 regular-season games because of rest (group A) and 5 to 9 regular-season games because of rest (group B) during each season. Inclusion criteria consisted of players who played a minimum of 20 minutes per game and made the playoffs that season. Players were excluded if they missed ≥10 games because of rest or suspension or missed ≥20 games in a season for any reason. Matched pairs were formed between the groups based on the following criteria: position, mean age at the start of the season within 2 years, regular-season minutes per game within 5 minutes, same playoff seeding, and player efficiency rating (PER) within 2 points. The following data from the playoffs were collected and compared between matched pairs at each position (point guard, shooting guard, forward/center): points per game, assists per game, PER, true shooting percentage, blocks, steals, and number of playoff games missed because of injury.Results:A total of 811 players met the inclusion and exclusion criteria (group A: n = 744 players; group B: n = 67 players). Among all eligible players, 27 matched pairs were formed. Within these matched pairs, players in group B missed significantly more regular-season games because of rest than players in group A (6.0 games vs 1.3 games, respectively; P < .0001). There were no significant differences between the groups at any position in terms of points per game, assists per game, PER, true shooting percentage, blocks, steals, or number of playoff games missed because of injury.Conclusion:Rest during the NBA regular season does not improve playoff performance or affect the injury risk during the playoffs in the same season.

Shadow and Spillover Effects of Competition in NBA Playoffs

The National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs are structured as an elimination tournament where reseeding does not occur after each round. This structure leads to situations where future competitors (the shadow effect) and previous effort (the spillover effect) affect current performance. Using data from the 2009-2014 NBA playoffs, results here find that, when a future opponent is known, a series favorite is significantly more likely to win a game when the future opponent is weaker than expected. Estimates also provide evidence that greater previous effort by teams increases the probability the series favorite wins a game.

Predicting the Outcome of NBA Playoffs Based on the Maximum Entropy Principle

Predicting the outcome of National Basketball Association (NBA) matches poses a challenging problem of interest to the research community as well as the general public. In this article, we formalize the problem of predicting NBA game results as a classification problem and apply the principle of Maximum Entropy to construct an NBA Maximum Entropy (NBAME) model that fits to discrete statistics for NBA games, and then predict the outcomes of NBA playoffs using the model. Our results reveal that the model is able to predict the winning team with 74.4% accuracy, outperforming other classical machine learning algorithms that could only afford a maximum prediction accuracy of 70.6% in the experiments that we performed.

Inside pass predicts ball possession effectiveness in NBA basketball.

The aims of this study were to analyse the effects of using inside pass on ball possession effectiveness and to identify game performance indicators to predict inside pass success in the National Basketball Association (NBA), considering situational variables. A total of 4207 closed ball possessions (± 10 points difference) where recorded from 25 matches of the 2010 NBA Playoffs series. Ball possessions were classified whether including inside pass (n=808) or not (n=3399). Predictive analysis of use and effectiveness was made through a series of binomial logistic regressions and Classification tree analysis (CHAID). Results indicate that ball possessions including inside pass were more effective and longer in duration, finding a greater use in top-4 NBA teams regardless the game period. Additionally, inside pass effectiveness was influenced by: the receiver attitude, reception distance, and defensive help. Particularly, the analysis of combined performance indicators disclosed relevant information on attack effectiveness, suggesting players to adopt a dynamic attitude in the weak side before getting the ball, while their teammates are developing individual and collective actions to create free space and enhance inside game options and effectiveness. Current findings shed some light on specific knowledge concerning tactical behaviours in NBA basketball, contributing in the design of specific programmes to increase inside game options and players’ decisionmaking according to specific game constraints.

Predicting Which Teams Will Make the NBA Playoffs

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the premier men’s professional basketball league in the world. Thirty teams vie for the sixteen spots in order to compete for the Larry O’Brien NBA Finals Championship Trophy. In this paper, we introduce a logistic regression model that can be used to predict which teams will make the playoffs at any given point in the NBA season. In addition, we discuss potential applications of this ranking scheme that can be used by an NBA front office, as well as “arm-chair” GMs playing fantasy sports. More importantly, we move beyond the rankings that are commonly seen on the popular websites by providing a measure of uncertainty associated with our predictions. Finally, we introduce an Rpackage (ballr) that can be used to access data from basketball-reference.com.

Life on the Red Carpet: Star Players and Referee Bias in the National Basketball Association

Fans of the National Basketball Association (NBA) have long considered the idea that NBA referees are biased in various ways, such as when certain “star players” benefit from so-called “phantom fouls” committed against them or are sheltered from calls against fouls they commit. Using two data sets, the first based on Wallace, Caudill, and Mixon (2013), and a second based on all player games during the 2011 NBA Playoffs series, including dozens of NBA All Stars, the present study empirically investigates this potential form of referee bias by examining both early- and late-game free throw shooting in these most critical games of any season for NBA players, coaches, owners, and fans. The empirical results suggest that marquee NBA players are the beneficiaries of referee bias that occurs near the end of NBA Playoffs contests. More specifically, through regression models with various fixed effects, we find that NBA All Stars are awarded with an additional 0.32 free attempts per minute during the fourth quarter of NBA Playoff games.

Homo certus in professional basketball? Empirical evidence from the 2011 NBA Playoffs

The current article builds on Berri and Eschker's (2005) research on the impact of crunch time, or pressure-packed performance, in professional basketball by searching for changes in individual player performance near the end of the game. In this way, our study is similar to the study of Savage and Torgler (2012), which examined World Cup soccer performances. Here, we focus solely on National Basketball Association (NBA) Playoff games (from 2011), which are the most stressful games to players. The empirical analyses presented in this study generally confirm earlier research contending that the existence of a prime time or clutch player in the NBA is a myth. On the contrary, our work supports the idea that professional basketball fans often exhibit confirmation bias, wherein they tend to overweight clutch performances that support their a priori beliefs.

Is There a Home Choke in Decisive Playoff Basketball Games?

Previous studies (Baumeister & Steinhilber, 1984; Schlenker, Phillips, Boniecki, & Schlenker (1995a) have found conflicting results regarding whether home teams have an advantage or not in athletic performance. We conducted two studies to explore the effects of basketball teams playing at home in playoff competition. We archived more than fifty years of National Basketball Association (NBA) playoff data, extending previous research to include a longer range of time and broader sample of NBA playoff games. We also extended previous studies by archiving a unique sample of college playoff basketball competition. Results are discussed in terms of both theoretical and applied implications. In sum, we found virtually no evidence of a home choke and strong evidence in favor of a home court advantage.

Testing for Bias and Manipulation in the National Basketball Association Playoffs

The following paper examines potential sources of bias in National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs. Employing NBA playoff data from 2003 through 2008, we investigate the expected margin of victory by the favored team. This method, by incorporating potentially mitigating variables, can also be used to test for potential bias and manipulation in tournament results.We find that the regular season winning percentage, used as the method for seeding teams for the NBA playoffs, is a good predictor of post season play. In addition to regular season play, we find confirming evidence of the home court advantage hypothesis suggested by previous studies. However, the analysis does indicate potential bias in playoff results in favor of large market teams. A team from a larger market is expected to win by a larger margin in the case of being the better team (stronger seed) or lose by a smaller margin in the case of being the worse team (weaker seed). Bias is also detected which would indicate closer margins of victory in early playoff series games which increases the probability of a longer series. While financial motivation for playoff manipulation is discussed, the findings only suggest bias and do not indicate its source.