EXPLORING GAME PERFORMANCE IN NBA PLAYOFFS

Authors

  • Nuno Mateus Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community
  • Bruno Gonçalves Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community
  • Eduardo Abade Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community, University Institute of Maia, ISMAI
  • Nuno Leite Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community
  • Miguel Angel Gomez Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, Polytechnic University of Madrid
  • Jaime Sampaio Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development, CIDESD, CreativeLab Research Community

Abstract

This study aimed to identify performance profiles in NBA playoffs and describe performances in the first and the last games of the series. Thirty games from the official box-scores and player-tracking data of the 2014/15 NBA playoffs were considered. A k-means cluster analysis was performed to group the players according to their game performance profiles and a discriminant analysis was conducted to identify the game-related statistics that best discriminated the groups. The first function correctly classified 64.2% of the cases and the second function classified 29.9% of the cases. The cluster analysis identified four different performance profiles and from the discriminant analysis emerged several offensive and defensive variables to classify the players in the clusters. The identified trends help to improve understanding of the game during different stages of playoffs. Coaches may use this information to better prepare their teams for different game scenarios.

Key words: game statistics, players profile, discriminant analysis

Downloads

Published

2018-06-21

How to Cite

Mateus, N., Gonçalves, B., Abade, E., Leite, N., Gomez, M. A., & Sampaio, J. (2018). EXPLORING GAME PERFORMANCE IN NBA PLAYOFFS. Kinesiology, 50(1), 89–96. Retrieved from https://hrcak.srce.hr/ojs/index.php/kinesiology/article/view/6323

Issue

Section

Articles

Similar Articles

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.