Okay, so I’ve been wanting to really dig into some NBA data, and the Cavs vs. Knicks game seemed like the perfect place to start. I’m not a statistician, but I figured I could try to collect some data and see if I could spot any, I guess you could call it, trends. I have just watched a game between cavs and knicks, and I record the process below.
Getting Started
First, I needed to find a place to get the data. I remember there would be a site that had play-by-play details. So I went and found the page for the specific Cavs vs. Knicks game I wanted.
Collecting the Data
This was the tedious part. I literally opened up a spreadsheet. I know, I know, there are probably way better ways to do this, but I’m just starting out, remember?
I started manually copying the info.
- Time of Each Play: I noted down the time remaining in each quarter when something happened.
- Which Team Scored: Cavs or Knicks, pretty straightforward.
- Type of Play: Was it a 2-pointer? 3-pointer? Free throw? Turnover? I made a little code for each of these.
- Who made the action: I also noted down the players involved.
It took a while, to be honest. I was going back and forth, making sure I didn’t miss anything. Coffee definitely helped. It took me almost 3 hours with checking every line of data.
Trying to Make Sense of It All
Once I had all this data in my spreadsheet, I started trying to see if anything jumped out. I made some simple calculations.
- Points per Quarter: Just adding up the points for each team in each quarter.
- Scoring Runs: I looked for times when one team scored several times in a row without the other team scoring.
- Key player’s performace: to see which player has the most points, and turnovers.
What I Found (So Far)
Honestly, I haven’t found anything earth-shattering yet. The game data shows pretty much what I record. I could see scoring runs and also the lead change, and which player perform well.
It was still kind of cool to see it all laid out, though. I think my next step might be to try and visualize this data somehow. Maybe some simple charts or graphs? I’m also thinking I need to learn a bit more about actual basketball stats to know what to look for. This was a fun first attempt, though!
