Isaac
Years ago

High scores in the NBL this season

From this round's NBL Fast Facts:

Back in round one, Kirk Penney scored a career high 41-points against the Hawks which remains the highest score posted by any player this season.

Most points scored in an NBL game this year:

41 Kirk Penney for Breakers vs Hawks
37 James Harvey for Blaze vs Hawks
35 Corey Williams for Crocs vs Spirit
35 Justin Bowen for Blaze vs Wildcats
34 Kirk Penney for Breakers vs 36ers
34 Kirk Penney for Breakers vs Crocs

Although we have played just 101 of the 150 matches scheduled, to have just one player score 40 in a game so far is an incredible low. Last season 9 players passed that mark led by Ebi Ere's 51 against the Sixers and in 2007 it was 6 players led by Martin Cattalini's 51 vs Brisbane. The lowest ever 'game high' for any NBL season was 41 scored by John Rillie for the Razorbacks against the Tigers in 2000 but that season 4 other players managed to score 40 in a match.

Kirk Penney has scored at least 30 points in a game 5 times to lead the league this year but the Hawks are one of three clubs that are yet to have a 30-point game from any player alongside South and Cairns. Every club has had a player score 30 against them with Perth giving up a league high 4 games.

Are Julius or Ballinger due? Julius is scoring 27 PPG over a recent patch of games, yet hasn't broken that top six list which shows some remarkable consistency.

Not sure that we'll see a 35+ point game in either of the other two matches tonight: Crocs-Dragons and Taipans-Hawks.

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KingJames
Years ago

I'm sure Hodge has the ability to score 40 to 50 points on most nights but the team would lose. I don't think we will see him score 35+ as he seems to be a balanced type of player that even if he is nearly unstoppable would rather get his team mates into the game.

Also with Hodge in the team it is unlikely Ballinger will go for another 46,42 type game like last season.

I think maybe the reason due to lack of high scorers is because the league is much more competitive this season making the defence alot tighter.

An interesting topic!

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Jordan
Years ago

Very interesting Isaac. I was actually looking over the pathetic stats section on the NBL website yesterday and noticed something very interesting which is related to your post.

Only 4 players in the league are averaging over 20 ppg this season, led by Julius with about 26 ppg, Kirk Penney was around 24.4, then it was a big drop to Ballinger at around 21.7 and Ebi Ere at 20.9.

I'm wondering how this compares with previous seasons, but it seems to me that this would be a much smaller group of players than in the past.

I'm wondering if this just goes to show that there's an increased level of competition in the NBL this season (therefore making it harder to have breakout 30+ pt games), or is it just a sign of the number of poor imports in the league this season (cos its generally gonna be imports who ave 20+ppg.)

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SKUX101
Years ago

Justin Bowen just matched his season-high with another 35 point game against the 36ers. Boy, he can play. He had 25 at the half too. I seriously thought he would end up with 40 +.

IMO, Bowen, Hodge and Penney are the most capable/likely of having a 40 + point game.

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Anonymous
Years ago

And he had 8 steals!

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DJ
Years ago

Any stats we can see that relates to minutes per game. I would imagine most players would be playing less minutes this season due to an a drop in teams resulting an increase in the depth of each team and more minutes being spread around.

Less minutes, less points for individuals and more spread box scores, how many box scores have we seen 5 or more players getting double figures, that used to be pretty rare.

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Jordan
Years ago

DJ, AFAIK the NBL website doesn't keep track of mpg unfortunately.

I think your point about increased depth has some merit to it, however, i doubt that it would be the top 2-3 players on each team whose mins would be reduced. IMO, its much more likely that it would be the next tier of players whose mins would suffer if such circumstances have in fact occured.

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Isaac
Years ago

Hodge's minutes up from 36 to 41 MPG, scoring up 0.7 PPG. Ballinger's minutes about the same, scoring down about 0.6 PPG.

Penney's minutes are down 1 MPG, scoring up 0.2 PPG.

Cattalini's minutes are up 6 MPG, scoring up 2 PPG.
Abney's minutes are down a touch and scoring too.

Anstey's minutes are up 1 MPG, scoring down almost 2 PPG.

Harvey's down a touch and scoring with it.

Homicide's minutes up a bit, scoring down.

Any other notable scorers who haven't changed teams or roles too much?

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Hoops

High scores in the NBL this season

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