Today’s Sports Stat: January 25, 2018
LeBron James earlier this week became the seventh NBA player to amass 30,000 points in a career (he is the eighth player if you add Julius Erving’s ABA point total to his NBA numbers).
James and Dirk Nowitzki are both members of the 30,000-point club and are still active. There are ten active players (in addition to James and Nowitzki) who have 18,000 or more career points. Whether or not any of these will join James and Nowitzki is up for debate, but here is a look at those 10 players (their age in years and days in noted after their career points totals).
Carmelo Anthony, 24,970 (33 years-240 days)
Vince Carter, 24,687 (40-363)
Dwyane Wade, 21,782 (36-007)
Pau Gasol, 20,491 (37-202)
Joe Johnson, 20,221 (36-209)
Kevin Durant, 20,157 (29-117)
Jason Terry, 18,735 (40-131)
Tony Parker, 18,716 (35-252)
Jamal Crawford, 18,529 (37-310)
Zach Randolph, 18,299 (36-192)
If I was a betting man, Durant is more than likely to reach 30,000 in his career… Anthony has an outside chance… other than those two, I don’t see another of the other 10 players listed above reaching the 30,000-point mark in their careers.
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Today’s Sports Stat: January 24, 2018
Philadelphia Eagles fans should have felt pretty confident that their team was well on their way to a victory after the first half when they had a 24-7 halftime lead against the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game.
Playoff teams that have scored 24 or more points in the first half of a post-season game since 1966 (the Super Bowl era) were 72-4 (.947 winning percentage) prior to last Sunday’s game.
Here are the four times when a playoff team scored 24 or more points in the first half of a post-season game yet lost that contest.
1992: Buffalo scored 28 points in the first half against Houston; the Oilers won the game 41-38.
2002: San Francisco scored 28 points in the first half against the New York Giants; the Giants won the game 39-38.
2012: San Francisco scored 24 points in the first half against Atlanta; the Falcons won the game 28-24.
2013: Indianapolis scored 31 points in the first half against Kansas City; the Chiefs won the game 45-44.
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Today’s Sports Stat: January 23, 2018
The Bucks Malcolm Brogdon had a career-high 32 points last night (Monday) in the team’s win over Phoenix.
What makes Brogdon’s game even more impressive is that he accomplished something that only six other Bucks players have accomplished in team history: Brogdon became the seventh Bucks player to have 30 or more points and was successful on 75% (or more) of his two-point shots, his three-point shots and his free throws.
Brogdon tallied 32 points on 8-for-10 (80%) of his two-point shots; 3-for-4 (75%) of his three-point shots; and 7-for-8 (87.5%) of his free throws in the game.
He is the first player to reach these stats in a game for the Bucks since Ersan Ilyasova did it on March 26, 2015. In fact, Ilyasova is the only Bucks player to have reached these numbers twice in his career with the team. The other Bucks players to reach these numbers in a game: Ray Allen, Frank Brickowski, Terry Cummings, Ricky Pierce and Alvin Robertson.
Brogdon also became the 93rd player to reach these stats in an NBA game. Surprisingly, Charles Barkley leads the league with eight such games in his career. He is followed by Reggie Miller with five such games, and Dirk Nowitzki with four.
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Today’s Sports Stat: January 22, 2018
For the third consecutive year, the NFC Championship Game was a blowout of 20 points or more. In 2015, the Carolina Panthers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 49-15 in the title game; last season the Atlanta Falcons beat the Green Bay Packers, 44-21; and yesterday, the Philadelphia Eagles won a Super Bowl berth with a 38-7 win over Minnesota.
The Eagles’ win over the Vikings was also the ninth time in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) that an AFC or NFC title game ended with one team beating another by more than 30 points.
Here are the nine conference championship games since 1966 that were 30-point blowouts.
48 points: 1990-Buffalo over the L.A. Raiders, 51-3
41 points: 2000-N.Y. Giants over Minnesota, 41-0
38 points: 2014-New England over Indianapolis, 45-7
34 points: 2015-Carolina over Arizona, 49-15
34 points: 1968-Baltimore Colts over Cleveland, 34-0
33 points: 1967-Oakland over Houston Oilers, 40-7
31 points: 1991-Washington over Detroit, 41-10
31 points: 2017-Philadelphia over Minnesota, 38-7
30 points: 1975-Dallas over L.A. Rams, 37-7
It’s interesting to note, however, that winning a conference championship game by 30 or more points does not guarantee that team will win their next game in the Super Bowl. Consider this:
- Of the eight teams that won their conference championship game by 30 or more points, only two went on to win the Super Bowl in their next game.
- Of the 22 teams that won their conference championship game by 20 or more points, only seven went on to win the super Bowl in their next game
Certainly not good news for the Eagles and their upcoming Super Bowl LII match-up with the Patriots.
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Today’s Sports Stat: January 20, 2018
Here’s a quick trivia question: The New England Patriots on Sunday January 21 will appear in their seventh consecutive AFC Championship Game. That means they have appeared in seven championship games since 2011. Which NFL team has appeared in the second most championship games since 2011? (Answer at the end of this column.)
Following are a few “leftover” stats from last week’s NFL playoff games.
- The Pittsburgh Steelers last week became seventh team to lose two playoff games in their history when they scored 30 or more points (the Steelers lost to Jacksonville 45-42 last Sunday). The other teams on this list: Cleveland, Dallas, Green Bay, Kansas City, Miami and New Orleans.
- The Steelers also have now lost 10 home playoff games in their history (since the start of the Super Bowl era in 1966), most in the NFL. Dallas is second with nine home playoff losses followed by Minnesota and San Francisco with eight.
- Teams that are scoreless at halftime in a playoff game have not had much success. Teams that are scoreless at half in a playoff game are 17-88 (.162 winning percentage) since 1966.
- Turnovers are another important part of the NFL’s post-season. Since the 2010 post-season, NFL teams that do not commit a turnover in a playoff game are 29-12 (.707 winning percentage). Teams that have turned the ball over three or more times in a playoff game since 2010 are 5-28 (.152).
- Tom Brady had another playoff game (in the Pats win over Tennessee) where he had three or more TD passes and more than 300 yards passing. That was the seventh time Brady reached those stats in a playoff game in his career, most in league history. Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers have had three or more TD passes and 300 or more yards passing in five different playoff games, tied for second on this list.
- Jacksonville rookie running back Leonard Fournette had three TDs in his team’s big win over Pittsburgh, making him only the fourth rookie in history to score three or more TDs in a playoff game. The others: Craig Baynham (Dallas, 12-24-1967), William Floyd (San Francisco, 1-7-1995) and Ryan Grant (Green Bay, 1-12-2008).
- Patriots’ tight end Rob Gronkowski had a TD reception in New England’s win last week over the Titans. That was his 10th playoff TD in his career. Those 10 playoff TDs since 2010 are the most of any player; Gronkowski also became the 18th player in NFL history to score 10 or more TDs in the post-season. Jerry Rice tops the list with 22 playoff TDs.
- With their 10-3 win over Buffalo in the Wild Card Game and their 45-42 win over Pittsburgh in the divisional round, the Jacksonville Jaguars became the first team in NFL history to win two playoff games in one season…one with 10 or fewer points scored and one with 40 or more points scored.
- With their game tomorrow against the Jacksonville Jags, the Patriots will have appeared in seven championship games since 2011. They are followed by the San Francisco 49ers with three title game appearances since 2011. The Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks have each appeared in two conference title games since 2011. Eight teams will have appeared in one conference championship game from 2011-17 (Arizona, Carolina, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Minnesota, New York Giants, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh). Did you get the San Francisco 49ers right in the answer to the trivia question?
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