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!
As a note, this week I use week 17 before the All-Star break and week 18 after the All-Star break as they were both incomplete weeks but combined for a "normal" NBA week.
The Top Five Boxscores of the Week
| Player | Date | Minutes | PTS(TS%) | TRB | AST | TOV | STL | BLK | PF | PoP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 2/13 | 38 | 33(62.5%) | 19 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 19.3 |
| Paul George | 2/11 | 43 | 47(76.2%) | 12 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 17.7 |
| Paul Millsap | 2/24 | 32 | 21(67.1%) | 16 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 15 |
| Joe Harris | 2/11 | 30 | 24(116.3%) | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10.8 |
| Stephen Curry | 2/21 | 36 | 36(75.4%) | 6 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9.9 |
1. Giannis just missed a 30-20 line, but with a fantastic triple-double that checked very positive box of the boxscore (with no negatives), he easily gets game of the week.
2. Paul George maintains his MVP run, with only one name in his way (look up). A fantastic triple-double with 8 for 13 from three. Paul George is on pace to have one of the greatest seasons from beyond the arc, so expect his name on this list a few more times.
3. Millsap puts up the third best game of the week and the best game of the week for the Nuggets (which is why Jokic is noticeably absent). Millsap has found the fountain of youth this year, and it's helping out the Nuggets.
4. Joe Harris is the best three-point scorer in the NBA this season (best efficiency for a player with at least five three-point attempts a game). He also won the three-point contest in the All-Star break. He makes the list for a 7 for 8 outing in a game he went 116% efficiency wise.
5. This week's theme could almost be great three-pointers (curse you Giannis and Millsap!) Curry made ten threes in a must-win game against the King. Many weeks it would be higher on the list, this week it's good enough for dead last.
The Bottom Three Boxscores of the Week
| Player | Date | Minutes | PTS(TS%) | TRB | AST | TOV | STL | BLK | PF | PoP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kelly Oubre Jr. | 2/23 | 35 | 14(35.2%) | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | -14.3 |
| Kemba Walker | 2/14 | 28 | 10(23.5%) | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | -13.7 |
| Patty Mills | 2/24 | 33 | 8(26.9%) | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -13.1 |
1. Kelly Oubre puts up the worst game of the week, and he had more to give but fouled out! Fourteen missed shots, a 1-3 assist to turnover ratio and few rebounds. At least he grabbed two steals.
2. "All-Star" Kemba Walker went 0-7 from three and did little else. The second worst game of the week out of an elite player.
3. Patty Mills has a horrible scoring outing with little else to make third on the list. This week is pretty boring with three solidly bad games.
Leaderboard Update
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.
| Player | List Appearances | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 6 | 24 |
| Paul George | 6 | 19 |
| James Harden | 7 | 18 |
| Nikola Jokic | 6 | 18 |
| Klay Thompson | 3 | 14 |
Giannis surges to a resounding lead, and Paul George jumps to second on the list. James Harden and Jokic are comfortably still on the list but will need to work to stay in striking of the top. Thanks to Anthony Davis staying "injured" and Steph Curry only putting up good but not amazing games, Klay Thompson career-defining games keep him in fifth.
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.