Top Playoff Performances

A list of the top playoff performances has been requested, and I am nothing if not ready to please the masses. So I threw up a quick and dirty page that recreates the "Every Game, Every Player" page, but just for the playoffs. You can check that out here. That page will update along with the rest of the site for the remaining games in the playoffs. For those that just want the top 10 figured out and displayed for them, I've created a spreadsheet that shows the top in PAWS and PAWSmin.

There are a few interesting things to mention about this.

1) If your team made the playoffs, but doesn't have a good point guard and doesn't make a play to trade for Jason Kidd, then your GM might need to find a different line of work. Yeah, if you are rebuilding, then a few years of Kidd won't create a championship. But if you are team in the playoffs, that wants to make a run in the next two years (Rockets? Lakers? Heat? Magic?), you've got to at least give it a shot and see if its possible. The guy continues to play amazingly well.

2) Andrei Kirilenko's big game came the same day that Deron Williams posted the worst win score of any player during these playoffs. He, along with Fisher, Boozer and Millsap, managed to win the game, even with a horrible performance from their point guard.

3) Every game in the list was won by the team with the best player. Not too surprising, but we've seen regular season games where one player was incredible, but the team lost the game. Having the best player on the floor seems to be important in playoff games.

4) LeBron's 48 points is not on the list. He garnered a 19 Win Score for the game and an 11.2 PAWS. However, I bet if we did a list of top second half Win Scores, his would probably be right at the top. It does show one interesting thing though. Stats are great for evaluating games and showing you what happened while you weren't watching. But they certainly are no substitute for watching the game. Even the most devout stat man would have to admit that Game 5 was one of the most impressive performances they've ever seen in their life, whether or not the stats say so.

It will be interesting to see if LeBron can keep up his improved play against the defense of the San Antonio Spurs. Detroit was supposed to be a defensive juggernaut, but I never saw the kind of intensity from them that I saw throughout the entire Spurs-Jazz series.

It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm sure David Stern breathed a huge sigh of relief when he saw it wouldn't be a Spurs-Pistons finals. It will be a great contrast. The disciplined, smart, steady Spurs against the athletic (except for Big Z), freewheeling and fun Cavs. I can't possibly think of a way that Cleveland wins this series, but I am rooting for them. Who knows? If Gibson can keep up his recent play, if Ilgauskas can pester Duncan into bad shots, if Varejao's hair can distract Manu Ginobili....well you just never know. And that's why it's fun.