Welcome to the Boxscores of the week! Every week I run down my picks of the five top boxscores of the week. For good measure, I also look at the bottom three. While production -- we use the Points Over Par metric -- does play a role in who I select, I also allow some subjectivity into my selection. With that in mind, here are our lists!
The Top Five Boxscores of the Week
| Player | Date | Minutes | PTS(TS%) | TRB | AST | TOV | STL | BLK | PF | PoP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nikola Vucevic | 12/28 | 33 | 30(73.1%) | 20 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 21.8 |
| Khris Middleton | 12/29 | 35 | 29(88.8%) | 4 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 14.7 |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 12/29 | 34 | 31(80.7%) | 10 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 14.7 |
| Deandre Ayton | 12/29 | 39 | 33(77.4%) | 14 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 14.3 |
| Andre Iguodala | 12/25 | 27 | 23(89.3%) | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10.8 |
1. Nikola Vucevic puts up the best game of the week, and the best per-minute game of the week (cutoff 10 minutes played). A 30-20 thumping of the best team in the East is something special. And somehow he also tacked on an 8-1 assist to turnover ratio too? Wow. Easy, easy pick for the #1 spot this week.
2. Alright, so I wanted to put the best triple-double of the week on the list. And a top 10 boxscore out of Giannis fit the bill. Easy, right? Well, it turns out Giannis wasn't the best player in the game he did that. Khris Middleton got 29 points on incredible shooting and got seven dimes with no turnovers. I couldn't snub him for Giannis, and I really wanted Giannis on the list. So?
3. They both make the list! Giannis' top ten boxscore with a triple-double makes the list! Amazing scoring, and hell, tack on two steals and three blocks too. Giannis' march towards the MVP continues!
4. Deandre Ayton puts up another monster game and justifies the "Rookie Spot" this week. A 33-14 game almost helped the worst team in the West beat the best team in the West, "almost" being the key word here.
5. Andre Iguodala put up the "best" game on Christmas. The thirty-five-year-old Finals MVP has been fighting off time and still playing great. Sadly, he was the only Warrior to show up, and the Lakers thumped the defending champs, without LeBron James for part of the game even!
Honorable Mention: Ivica Zubac in the Lakers/Warriors game on Christmas played quite well. I couldn't justify him over Iguodala. That said, he's been playing great minutes at center for the Lakers, and we hope he keeps his starting job. If he does, I'm sure he'll make this list for real soon.
The Bottom Three Boxscores of the Week
| Player | Date | Minutes | PTS(TS%) | TRB | AST | TOV | STL | BLK | PF | PoP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jamal Murray | 12/26 | 27 | 9(23.7%) | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | -14.9 |
| Russell Westbrook | 12/29 | 38 | 9(19.7%) | 9 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 2 | -9 |
| Willy Hernangomez | 12/29 | 10 | 2(20%) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -8.7 |
1. I feel bad putting Jamal Murray on this list as a great game against Phoenix gave Denver the win (see above). That said, Murray put up the worst game of the week in a heartbreaking loss to the Spurs. Poor shooting, lousy passing. At least his rebounding (for a guard) was fine.
2. Russell Westbrook puts up the worst shooting performance of the week to make the list. It's impressive how bad it was as he almost had a triple-double and also nabbed six steals. He still put up a horrendous game and was a big part of why the Mavericks escaped with a close win.
3. Willy Hernangomez gives a clinic in how not to be a center. In a mere ten minutes of play (actually 10 seconds less than a full ten!) went 1-5, only got one board, turned the ball over twice, and racked up three personal fouls. Giving the opponent a one-point edge every minute you're on the floor deserves recognition!
The Top Boxscores Leaderboard
Reminder, I'm using an MVP voting scheme for, well, no reason in particular. So the best boxscore of the week gets 5 points, 2nd best 4, etc. For the bad boxscores, I'm doing -3,-2,-1. Here's an update of how things look (minimum two boxscores to place), and we've got enough names, I'm fine limiting it to a top 10!
| Player | Points | List Appearances |
|---|---|---|
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 13 | 3 |
| Stephen Curry | 10 | 3 |
| LeBron James | 9 | 3 |
| Nikola Jokic | 9 | 2 |
| De'Aaron Fox | 8 | 2 |
| Anthony Davis | 7 | 2 |
| Boban Marjanovic | 7 | 2 |
| Paul George | 7 | 2 |
| James Harden | 5 | 2 |
| Deandre Ayton | 5 | 3 |
Some shakeups to the list! Giannis takes the number one spot over Curry! I hope that remains a tight race. Ayton kicks Andre Drummond off the list to take the 10th spot. To be confusing, I'm giving the "tie-breaker" to Harden, despite fewer appearances, because he has not gotten the benefit of a rookie game spot. Luckily, with Giannis being ahead on points, I don't have to worry about the same problem for the top of the list.
The "bad" list remained Donovan Mitchell's to keep. On the plus side, he didn't add to his lead this week!
Alright, those are our lists. As always, let us know in the comments or on Twitter if you have any suggestions. You can also let us know if our selections were wrong, but it's too late to change things now! See you next week!
* Reminder, the Points over Par metric is just the Wins Produced formula translated into point margin. The way to think of it is -- how many points would a team win (or lose) by with our player's performance if they played next to an average team against an average opponent.