Stat du Jour: And When They're Bad...

[lethalweapon3]

Quiz Question: Which one, among the following teams, currently has a larger LOSING MARGIN (points differential) in games LOST?

(i.e., Which of these teams is losing by more points per game?)

Kings

Clippers

Bobcats

Pacers

Wolves

Pistons

Nets

Warriors

Raptors

Wizards

Hawks

~lw3

Edited February 9, 2011 by lethalweapon3

[tremor]

Cavs?

[lethalweapon3]

Cavs?

The Comic Sans Crew has got the league lead, but there's a particular team that's gaining on them and the Jazz (about 1.3 points behind the Cavs, 0.1 behind the Jazz). Can you guess who it is? :-)

~lw3

[tremor]

Wolves?

[coachx]

It has to be the Hawks if your only taking into account games lost. We have some real ugly losses.

[AUhawksfan]

Nets?

[lethalweapon3]

Wolves?

The T'Wolves' losses are by a mere 11.0 points per game, compared to our "mystery team" (cough), which has been losing by 13.1 points per game in its defeats.

~lw3

[tremor]

If it's Hawks the reason must be they usually win close games :thumbsdownsmileyanim:

[lethalweapon3]

Quiz Question: Which one, among the following teams, currently has a larger LOSING MARGIN (points differential) in games LOST?

(i.e., Which of these teams is losing by more points per game?)

Kings

Clippers

Bobcats

Pacers

Wolves

Pistons

Nets

Warriors

Raptors

Wizards

Hawks

~lw3

Pencils down... the teams were listed in order, from "pretty bad" to "OMFG..."

Kings - 9.3 (95.1 - 104.4) (36 losses)

Clippers -10.4 (94.4 - 104.8) (32 losses)

Bobcats -10.7 (88.1 - 98.8) (29 losses)

Pacers -10.8 (93.1 - 103.9) (28 losses)

Wolves -11.0 (101.3-112.3) (39 losses)

Pistons -11.6 (89.9-101.5) (33 losses)

Nets -11.6 (89.4-101.0) (37 losses)

Warriors -11.8 (98.2-110.0) (28 losses)

Raptors -11.8 (95.4-107.2) (38 losses)

Wizards -12.0 (94.2-106.2) (37 losses)

HAWKS -13.1 (88.4-101.5) (19 losses)

And the only two teams doing worse so far...

Jazz -13.2 (91.3-104.5) (22 losses; includes the Hawks' beatdown in SLC)

Cavaliers -14.4 (93.1-107.5) (44 losses)

Fewest PPG in losses:

1. Bucks 86.3 (Opp 96.0)

2. Celtics 87.4 (Opp 93.4)

3. Bobcats 88.1 (Opp 98.8)

4. HAWKS 88.4 (Opp 101.5)

5. Mavericks 88.9 (Opp 97.3)

More soapbox-grandstanding from me on this in a bit.

~lw3

If it's Hawks the reason must be they usually win close games :thumbsdownsmileyanim:

This looks only at the losses, not the victories.

~lw3

[tremor]

This looks only at the losses, not the victories.

~lw3

Yes, I know. Hawks win most of close game, so their loses are usually by significant to large margin.

[coachx]

Yes, I know. Hawks win most of close game, so their loses are usually by significant to large margin.

Dense as a rock !

[lethalweapon3]

That loss margin among the 8 home game defeats so far is -16.8 (88.5 - 105.3). I don't have time to compare with everyone in the league, but just looking at the sad-sack Cavs, their differential in 17 home game defeats is -11.0 (94.8-105.8).

Time to get my flog on...

There are some NBA organizations who can endure a handful of blowout losses, even at home, or perhaps on the road before a national audience.

The Atlanta Hawks are not one of those teams.

This is the sole returning NBA playoff team that is NOT among the top 20 in home percentage attendance. The team whose relative ranking among NBA clubs for attendance has slid to 25th (down from 18th) after slowly climbing every year since 2006.

This is the team with multiple All-Stars and Almost-Stars that, individually, can not fill any tier of seating in an arena, at least not anymore. Blake's 19-32 Clippers, Nash's 24-25 Suns, and Amar'e's 26-24 Knicks are bigger draws in this town than the 33-19 Hawks.

This is a team who brands its arena as The Highlight Factory, whose leading scorer's "highlights" generally involve teardrops and turnarounds in traffic, whose flashiest player, now seven years removed from a Slam Dunk title, has become enamored with 20-foot jumpshots.

This is a team almost one year removed from playoff blowout performances so epically bad that they eclipsed their prior year's second-round drubbings, and the road playoff drubbings from the year before that.

This is the team that, when forced to discuss them solely because of their relative record, provokes faces on national media members worthy of laxative commercials. "C'mon, do we have to talk about the Hawks? Really?"

This is a team whose dispirited ownership only seems to make headlines when they further entomb themselves in lawsuits and inertia.

This is a team that strings along a flawed head coach on cheap contracts, and lets him go only to promote the assistant sitting next to him for even less money. When he was promoted, and when the so-called 'core' was brought back in its entirety, this was all presented under a Kool-Aid sale suggesting, with new systems and philosophies in place, blowout basketball and mail-it-in efforts would be mere notions of the past.

This is the team that is the only American pro franchise (MLB-NFL-NHL-NBA) around for at least the last 40 years that has not given its fans a conference final in the past four decades.

Altogether, it takes an awful lot of trust to get thousands of people to stop in on a lousy-weather mid-week night to see the Atlanta Hawks. When a low-profile team like Philly (or New Orleans. or Milwaukee) comes in, and their first-quarter scoring equals the Hawks' effort for the entire first half, that's hundreds more people who have made a mental note never to darken Philips Arena's door again. Other teams can shrug this off. Not this one.

Without splashy maneuvers, high-profile players, and risk-taking management, this is a team that needs to build consumer confidence, rather than erode it, one game at a time.

~lw3

[Seano]

Dense as a rock !

Uhmmm, I believe Tremor is not a native English speaker. If you look under his username, you will find he lists his location as being Poland.

[TheTruth]

Lethal, I won't quote your entire recent post, but I read all of it...and it was the unvarnished truth.

Plus Freaking One.

[MaceCase]

I could hear "America the Beautiful" in the background while reading that post.

[tremor]

Dense as a rock !

Either I somehow missed the point or failed to express what I mean comprehensively. Hawks are 12 - 5 in games decided by 6 points or less. So only 5 of those games are included in average lethalweapon has presented.

On the side note these are only 17 of 52 played games so apparently Hawks don't like when game is undecided to the last moment.

Edited February 10, 2011 by tremor

[jerrywest]

That loss margin among the 8 home game defeats so far is -16.8 (88.5 - 105.3). I don't have time to compare with everyone in the league, but just looking at the sad-sack Cavs, their differential in 17 home game defeats is -11.0 (94.8-105.8).

Time to get my flog on...

There are some NBA organizations who can endure a handful of blowout losses, even at home, or perhaps on the road before a national audience.

The Atlanta Hawks are not one of those teams.

This is the sole returning NBA playoff team that is NOT among the top 20 in home percentage attendance. The team whose relative ranking among NBA clubs for attendance has slid to 25th (down from 18th) after slowly climbing every year since 2006.

This is the team with multiple All-Stars and Almost-Stars that, individually, can not fill any tier of seating in an arena, at least not anymore. Blake's 19-32 Clippers, Nash's 24-25 Suns, and Amar'e's 26-24 Knicks are bigger draws in this town than the 33-19 Hawks.

This is a team who brands its arena as The Highlight Factory, whose leading scorer's "highlights" generally involve teardrops and turnarounds in traffic, whose flashiest player, now seven years removed from a Slam Dunk title, has become enamored with 20-foot jumpshots.

This is a team almost one year removed from playoff blowout performances so epically bad that they eclipsed their prior year's second-round drubbings, and the road playoff drubbings from the year before that.

This is the team that, when forced to discuss them solely because of their relative record, provokes faces on national media members worthy of laxative commercials. "C'mon, do we have to talk about the Hawks? Really?"

This is a team whose dispirited ownership only seems to make headlines when they further entomb themselves in lawsuits and inertia.

This is a team that strings along a flawed head coach on cheap contracts, and lets him go only to promote the assistant sitting next to him for even less money. When he was promoted, and when the so-called 'core' was brought back in its entirety, this was all presented under a Kool-Aid sale suggesting, with new systems and philosophies in place, blowout basketball and mail-it-in efforts would be mere notions of the past.

This is the team that is the only American pro franchise (MLB-NFL-NHL-NBA) around for at least the last 40 years that has not given its fans a conference final in the past four decades.

Altogether, it takes an awful lot of trust to get thousands of people to stop in on a lousy-weather mid-week night to see the Atlanta Hawks. When a low-profile team like Philly (or New Orleans. or Milwaukee) comes in, and their first-quarter scoring equals the Hawks' effort for the entire first half, that's hundreds more people who have made a mental note never to darken Philips Arena's door again. Other teams can shrug this off. Not this one.

Without splashy maneuvers, high-profile players, and risk-taking management, this is a team that needs to build consumer confidence, rather than erode it, one game at a time.

~lw3

Lethal - Post of the year. May I quote this at AJC?

[lethalweapon3]

Lethal - Post of the year. May I quote this at AJC?

ah, sure, feel free! I was in "fume-now, edit-later" mode yesterday, so if anything's not quite accurate, you can edit at will.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Final tallies...

Largest Margins of Losses (Average PPG minus Average Opponent PPG in Losses, 2010-11):

Wizards -13.8 (94.7-108.5)

Cavaliers -13.7 (92.9-106.6)

HAWKS -13.3 (89.0-102.3)

Warriors -12.0 (99.2-111.2)

Bobcats -11.7 (88.3-100.0)

Raptors -11.7 (96.4-108.1)

Jazz -11.7 (94.3-106.0)

T'Wolves -11.6 (98.8-110.4)

Nets -11.5 (91.0-102.5)

Pacers -11.4 (93.2-104.6)

Fewest PPG in Losses, 2010-11:

Celtics 86.2

Bucks 86.2

Bobcats 88.3

HAWKS 89.0

Trail Blazers 89.3

Looking at the Lowlight Factory alone, 9 out of the Hawks' 17 losses at home were by double digits (including 5 of their final 7 games at Philips), contributing to a loss margin of -14.9 points per game (88.1-103.0). Without crunching every team's numbers, I'll go ahead and guess that's the largest margin in the NBA for home losses. By comparison, the team with the largest NBA loss margin overall, Washington, lost at home by an average of -12.8 points per game. The team with the worst record in the NBA, Minnesota, lost 29 home games by an average of -10.7 points per game. The team with the most home losses, Sacramento, lost 30 home contests by an average of -7.8 points per game... and only 6 of those losses were by double digits.

~lw3

[Crank]

That loss margin among the 8 home game defeats so far is -16.8 (88.5 - 105.3). I don't have time to compare with everyone in the league, but just looking at the sad-sack Cavs, their differential in 17 home game defeats is -11.0 (94.8-105.8).

Time to get my flog on...

There are some NBA organizations who can endure a handful of blowout losses, even at home, or perhaps on the road before a national audience.

The Atlanta Hawks are not one of those teams.

This is the sole returning NBA playoff team that is NOT among the top 20 in home percentage attendance. The team whose relative ranking among NBA clubs for attendance has slid to 25th (down from 18th) after slowly climbing every year since 2006.

This is the team with multiple All-Stars and Almost-Stars that, individually, can not fill any tier of seating in an arena, at least not anymore. Blake's 19-32 Clippers, Nash's 24-25 Suns, and Amar'e's 26-24 Knicks are bigger draws in this town than the 33-19 Hawks.

This is a team who brands its arena as The Highlight Factory, whose leading scorer's "highlights" generally involve teardrops and turnarounds in traffic, whose flashiest player, now seven years removed from a Slam Dunk title, has become enamored with 20-foot jumpshots.

This is a team almost one year removed from playoff blowout performances so epically bad that they eclipsed their prior year's second-round drubbings, and the road playoff drubbings from the year before that.

This is the team that, when forced to discuss them solely because of their relative record, provokes faces on national media members worthy of laxative commercials. "C'mon, do we have to talk about the Hawks? Really?"

This is a team whose dispirited ownership only seems to make headlines when they further entomb themselves in lawsuits and inertia.

This is a team that strings along a flawed head coach on cheap contracts, and lets him go only to promote the assistant sitting next to him for even less money. When he was promoted, and when the so-called 'core' was brought back in its entirety, this was all presented under a Kool-Aid sale suggesting, with new systems and philosophies in place, blowout basketball and mail-it-in efforts would be mere notions of the past.

This is the team that is the only American pro franchise (MLB-NFL-NHL-NBA) around for at least the last 40 years that has not given its fans a conference final in the past four decades.

Altogether, it takes an awful lot of trust to get thousands of people to stop in on a lousy-weather mid-week night to see the Atlanta Hawks. When a low-profile team like Philly (or New Orleans. or Milwaukee) comes in, and their first-quarter scoring equals the Hawks' effort for the entire first half, that's hundreds more people who have made a mental note never to darken Philips Arena's door again. Other teams can shrug this off. Not this one.

Without splashy maneuvers, high-profile players, and risk-taking management, this is a team that needs to build consumer confidence, rather than erode it, one game at a time.

~lw3

I dont think there is much confidence to be built up here . In the end I think this franchise will go the way of the the Sonics and soon the Kings . We lost only 7 home games all of last year and the feeling was still pretty much the same as was the way fans reacted to the team .