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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 4/4 | 35 | 45(72%) | 13 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 17.3 |
| Russell Westbrook | 4/2 | 37 | 20(41.1%) | 20 | 21 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 14.9 |
| Blake Griffin | 4/5 | 35 | 45(83.2%) | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 15.1 |
| Evan Turner | 4/1 | 25 | 13(110.5%) | 11 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 14.4 |
| Trae Young | 4/3 | 33 | 33(78.3%) | 7 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 14 |
1. Giannis had a statement game for the MVP race. He put up 45 against the "unstoppable" Joel Embiid while also blocking Embiid four times. A double-double with six assists isn't shabby either and helped him to the best game of the week. Giannis has wrapped up Boxscore Player of the Year at this point.
2. Russell Westbrook joins Wilt as the only player with a 20-20-20 line. He should have been a lock for #1 on the list but his shooting was just atrocious, I'm not sure I count that 20 points. Westbrook will average a triple-double for his third straight season, but his True Shooting has taken a major hit this season.
3. Blake Griffin went 9-14 from three to have the best scoring game of the week. The rest of his game was decent too. Sadly, as we'll see soon, consistency is an issue for Blake.
4. Evan Turner had several great games last week. This hyper-efficient triple-double earns him a spot on the list.
5. Trae Young earns the rookie spot on the list with a great 30-12 double-double. He's improved leaps and bounds this season.
The Bottom Three Boxscores of the Week
| Player | Date | Minutes | PTS(TS%) | TRB | AST | TOV | STL | BLK | PF | PoP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragan Bender | 4/7 | 36 | 19(46.3%) | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | -14.7 |
| Cedi Osman | 4/1 | 33 | 3(12.1%) | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | -14.4 |
| Blake Griffin | 4/7 | 34 | 16(39.6%) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -12 |
1. Dragan put up 19 points on 17 shots and eight free throws. As a big only grabbing eight rebounds in 36 minutes to go with two turnovers and three fouls earn him the top honors on this week's list.
2. Thank goodness Cedi Osman fouled out because he was playing horribly. He was one for twelve from the field, ouch!
3. Blake makes the list for this stinker to juxtapose his otherwise great game. 2-11 from three, and a "four by three" if you include turnovers helped Blake to one of the worst games of the week.
Leaderboard Update
No movement this week, but as I noted, Giannis locks the #1 spot as no one can catch him with only a week to go. Harden is also locked in at the number two spot. A few names including Curry, Ayton, Gobert, and Westbrook could make the list if they finish next week at the #1 spot.
| Player | List Appearances | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 9 | 36 |
| James Harden | 9 | 27 |
| Paul George | 6 | 19 |
| Nikola Jokic | 6 | 18 |
| Klay Thompson | 3 | 14 |
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.