WITH the National Basketball League (NBL) launching this year’s Blitz pre-season tournament, plenty of sides are looking to get a gauge on how they are tracking in comparison to their opponents. The competition provides the opportunity for teams to take a look at areas they are excelling in, and others that require a level of improvement. With a half a dozen games down already, we take a look at some of the key statistical categories that teams would like to ideally dominate in. We also see how much these are affecting the results of the contests we have seen so far throughout the two-week tournament.

Field goal percentage:

This area proved to be a mixed indicator on the success of a team in their matches over the last five days, despite it typically being a reliable measurement of this. Of the five matches that have recently taken place, only three have resulted in the winning team shooting a higher percentage from the field, showing that this is not as consistent a pattern as once thought.

The most remarkable shooting performance came from the Brisbane Bullets, who took down the Perth Wildcats on Friday night behind some insanely accurate shots. The Bullets made 42 of their 63 attempts from the field, which equated to a 66 per cent success rate. There was not much the Wildcats could do to slow down their opponents, who were simply red hot as they delivered the best shooting performance of this year’s NBL Blitz.

Despite shooting a lower percentage than their opposition, the Breakers and Wildcats were able to emerge victorious in their matches. The common denominator in these wins was the impressive shooting from deep, which we will touch on below.

Three-point percentage:

There was no statistical category more important than shooting from long range over the last handful of games, proving crucial in deciding the result of these matches. Every team that shot more accurately than the opposition ended up winning their respective contests, with the extra points proving vital. The NBL Blitz has demonstrated the evolution of the game into a battle of range, with many sides looking to stretch the floor with all five positions on the court. Suddenly, most big men are asked to do more and become a threat from behind the three-point line, and whichever side can pull this off to greater effect, often wins the match.

The Wildcats are a perfect example of this effect, with contrasting results in their two matches over this period. In their first outing against the Bullets, they were beaten from range, and ended up losing this match by 10 points, largely due to their reliance and failure from deep. However, this result was flipped in their following match against the Taipans, where they were able to make 15 of their 41 attempts from behind the arc, and due to this, were able to pull off a nine-point triumph, emphasising the importance of success in this area.

Rebounding:

Much like last week, the rebounding battle did not prove too crucial in determining the result of these matches, with there being no solid connection between the two outcomes. In fact, just one eventual winner ended up out-rebounding their opponents, which demonstrates the importance of shooting well from deep, which gives a team maximum points per possession.

Remarkably, the Illawarra Hawks and the Perth Wildcats were both outrebounded by double-digits and were still able to emerge from their contests victorious. The Wildcats match was ultimately decided by which team was able to hold onto the ball, with their opponents conceding 12 more turnovers, which gave Perth plenty more opportunities to boost their score into a winning total.