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Two views of the same night. By Game is a shortlist: one card per game listing the specific weaknesses that game contains, grouped by the defense giving them up. Matchups opens a single game at a time and reads the defense in it three ways — by play type, by where shots come from, and by position — with the players facing it in a table underneath.
How to read it
On By Game, each row is a defense allowing an unusual amount of something to a position, and only the genuinely extreme ones are listed — an average matchup does not appear. On Matchups, every number carries a rank against the rest of the league where one means the softest defense at that spot, and the color says the same thing the rank does, so green marks the more attackable end. Selecting a row on the defensive grid re-reads the table below it: for zones and play types each player’s own numbers inside that spot, and for positions the table filters to that position.
Where the numbers come from
Each lens comes from the board that owns it — the position splits from Defense vs Position, the play-type and shot-location allowances from their own sources — so a change there moves this board with it. Ranks are computed across every team in the league rather than the ones playing that night, so a rank means the same thing on a two-game evening as on a twelve-game one. Windows cover the season to date or a team’s last seven or fifteen games, counted in games rather than days, and the defensive grid and the player table always move together. The with-or-without control recomputes a rotation over only the games matching which teammates played, and shows how many games that leaves.
Who it's for
For deciding which games to open and which players to look at inside them. The grid says where a team is soft and the table underneath says who is across from it, so a read can be followed from a weakness to a player without leaving the page.
What the NBA stats mean
GP / MPGGames played and minutes per game.
REB CHCRebound chances — rebounds that were actually available to a player, not just the ones he grabbed. Useful for separating opportunity from result.
POT ASTPotential assists — passes that would have been assists if the shot had gone in. Measures playmaking without punishing a teammate’s miss.
USG%Usage rate — share of the team’s possessions a player uses while on the floor.
TS%True shooting percentage — scoring efficiency that accounts for two-pointers, three-pointers and free throws together.
ORtg / DRtgPoints produced and points allowed per 100 possessions.
NetRtgOffensive rating minus defensive rating.
DvPDefense vs Position — how much a defense gives up to opponents at one position, rather than overall. A team can defend well overall and still be the place guards go to score.
Allowed / Percentile / AdjustedThree ways to read the same defensive cell. Allowed is the raw per-game number. Percentile ranks it 0 to 100 across the league, where higher means an easier matchup. Adjusted shows how much better or worse players do against that defense than they normally do.
PPPPoints per possession on a given play type — how efficiently a player finishes that action.
Freq%Frequency — share of a player’s possessions that came from a given play type.
ColorsShading is calibrated to the NBA’s own range, not college. The same number reads a different color on the NCAA board, so do not compare cell colors across the two sports.
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