Spoiler Protection Pet: Boba
Hi Apricot,
This is boba_balla from DubNationHQ. Thanks for all your work on the site. Have always appreciated all that you do since the GSOM days, and glad the Warriors hired you to do some official work for them!
I wanted to submit a photo of our dog, Boba. This is an older pic of him sporting some Dubs swag, and sadly he passed away almost exactly one year ago. If he can make it onto the rotation, that would be so awesome.
Hope you have a great weekend and are able to catch the Dubs and Valks games.
Thanks,
boba_balla
Pet Picture Rotation
General offer to DNHQ: if you send me a tasteful picture of your loved animal, I will add it to the rotation of Game Wrap animal pictures.
Ideally, wearing DNHQ gear or Warriors gear, but having gear somewhere in the picture is great, or even without is okay.
No AI please.
Email to apricotan@gmail.com
Game 8 wrap: Dubs storm back, unstorm back, hold on to win; Steph’s 34 leads way; Dray gets ejected
Bassey and Niang come up big; Podz and Yax chip in
Official Box Score
The official Always Close Enough To Hurt™ audit
Here is a home-grown graph of the game win probability tonight. The gray line is the actual score difference. The chart looks about right to me, but if you use this for anything important or anything bad like gambling, then you get what you get.
Draymond Green got himself ejected, triggering that Q3 comeback starting at 10:00. Then it became a wiggly thriller… just when GSW looked like they would pull away, something odd would happen.
Anyway, mission accomplished: Always Close Enough To Hurt™.
As a side note, the Warriors found themselves in a Foul Up Three situation. Longtime viewers may remember that GSW has explored the space of ways to mess up Foul Up Three endings.
Anyway, on the Valkyries side (the WNBA Champion Valkyries!!), I wrote extensively about the Foul Up Three strategy, both on the WNBA and MNBA sides. The whole epic saga is not just about numbers, but includes a months-long redemption arc with my attempts to have Coach Nakase answer my question on Foul Up Three.
APRIBOX Scores
It’s okay if you don’t know what all these stats are. My high-strung computer calculates some rough advanced statistics for the game.1
Teal = better, blood orange = worse.
APRIBOT Rankings
APRIBOT uses a homegrown modification of Simple Rating System to rank NBA teams. It’s very unstable at this early part of the season. For instance, before this game, she ranked GSW (amazingly) as the #5 team in the league, despite having only a 4-3 record.
Tonight’s game, even though it was a win, led APRIBOT to downgrade GSW, probably because she thinks Phoenix is one of the very worst teams in the league and a 3-point victory is not as impressive as things that other teams have done. She still thinks GSW is the #8 team.
Warrior Wonder
If I didn’t include your favorite player, sorry! There are only 5 slots available. Write a tribute comment at DubNationHQ.com instead.
On Site Comments and Politics
Reminder that I do not want DNHQ to become a political discussion. Politics is much more important than basketball. These events should be discussed widely and people should call their Senators and Congresspeople, and organize locally, but there are much better places than here. This is a little corner of the internet to get away from that.
On to the next one…
AVG-Z = mean of the 4 z-scores (PIE, GmSc, VORP, DRE) · PIE = NBA Player Impact Estimate, share of team production · GmSc = Hollinger Game Score · VORP = value over replacement · DRE = daily regression estimate · +/- = on-court point differential · MIN = minutes · PTS = points · FGM/A, 3PM/A, FTM/A = FG/3PT/FT made–att · OR/DR = off./def. rebounds · AST/STL/BLK/TOV = assists/steals/blocks/turnovers · FD = fouls drawn on offense · OFD = offensive fouls drawn (charges) · PF = personal fouls · TS% = scoring efficiency incl. FTs · eFG% = FG% weighted for 3s · 3PAr = share of shots that are 3s · FTr = FTA/FGA rate · OR/DR/TR% = rebound shares · AST/STL/BLK/TOV/USG% = rate stats · ORTG/DRTG = pts per 100 poss · BPM = box plus-minus · xFG% = expected FG% on shots taken · xPTS = expected FG points · +xP = FG points over expected · FG%+ = FG% minus expected, in points · DxP = opponent FG pts over expected on shots defended (negative = good) · GRV = defensive attention drawn, on- and off-ball (tracking stats: NBA only; GRV for spotlight leaders)
I liked the part where they won the game.
If you haven’t already, get out to vote tomorrow!