Basketball Statistics

Statistics in basketball are kept to evaluate a player or a team's performance.

Some statistics are

  • GP, GS: games played, games started
  • PTS: points
  • FGM, FGA, FG%: field goals made, attempted and percentage
  • FTM, FTA, FT%: free throws made, attempted and percentage
  • 3FGM, 3FGA, 3FG%: three-point field goals made, attempted and percentage
  • REB, OREB, DREB: rebounds, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds
  • AST: assists
  • STL: steals
  • BLK: blocks
  • TO: turnovers
  • EFF: efficiency: NBA's efficiency rating: (PTS + REB + AST + STL + BLK - FG missed - FT missed - TO)
  • PF: personal fouls
  • MIN: minutes
  • AST/TO: assist to turnover ratio
  • PER: Player Efficiency Rating: John Hollinger's Player Efficiency Rating
  • PIR: Performance Index Rating: Euroleague's and Eurocup's Performance Index Rating: (Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks + Fouls Drawn) - (Missed Field Goals + Missed Free Throws + Turnovers + Shots Rejected + Fouls Committed)


Averages per game are denoted by *PG (PPG, RPG, APG, SPG etc.). Sometime the players statistics are divided by minutes played and multiplied by 48 minutes (had he played the entire game), denoted by * per 48 min..

A player who makes double digits in a game in any two of the PTS, REB, AST, STL, and BLK statistics is said to make a double double; in three statistics, a triple double; in four statistics, a quadruple double. A quadruple double is extremely rare (and has only occurred four times in the NBA). There is also a 5x5, when a player records at least a 5 in each of the 5 statistics.

The NBA also posts to the statistics section of its Web site a simple composite efficiency statistic, denoted EFF and derived by the formula, ((Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks) - ((Field Goals Att. - Field Goals Made) + (Free Throws Att. - Free Throws Made) + Turnovers)). While conveniently distilling most of a players key statistics in one numerical score, the formula is not highly regarded by the statistics community, with the alternative Player Efficiency Rating developed by ESPN basketball statistician John Hollinger being more widely used to compare the overall efficiency of players.

Lovers of basketball statistics often enjoy comparing dozens of more arcane statistics, many of which show how well a player works within the team context. Continually updated databases hosted by Web sites can generate sortable charts and graphs in an interactive fashion. A few clicks can show, for example, who among shooting guards gets blocked the most per shot attempt, or who leads a particular team in any given category.

In fantasy basketball, statistics are used in a formula as the measurement of a player's performance.

Famous quotes containing the words basketball and/or statistics:

    “Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few things in common, but the most important is the possibility of transcendence. The opposite is labor. In writing, every writer knows when he or she is laboring to achieve an effect. You want to get from here to there, but find yourself willing it, forcing it. The equivalent in basketball is aiming your shot, a kind of strained and usually ineffective purposefulness. What you want is to be in some kind of flow, each next moment a discovery.”
    —Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)

    “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts—for support rather than illumination.”
    —Andrew Lang (1844–1912)