Stats don't lie: The best teams ahead of the Regular Season homestretch

MIES (Switzerland) - As we enter the final five-week stretch in the Basketball Champions League Regular Season, we have a sufficient sample size to delve into the stats in search of the best teams in each category.

Are the statistical finds surprising or are they an accurate reflection of the group standings after the first nine gamedays of the 2019-20 season? And could they predict the 16 teams that will advance to the Play-Offs?

Let's have a closer look and try to answer those questions.

 

Best Offense

It is now rather safe to assume that Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem and San Pablo Burgos (not necessarily in that order) will have the two highest offensive ratings in the Regular Season, because they have occupied the top two spots almost uninterruptedly since the start of the season.

Hapoel's consistency in particular is quite impressive, as its offensive rating was 120.7 in the snapshot we took after the first six gamedays, and it has only dropped by 1.4 point (to 119.3). Burgos on the other hand has dropped to 118.2, from 121.4.

RASTA Vechta and Dinamo Sassari have also shown great consistency on the offensive end, maintaining a top-5 spot since early in the season. Meanwhile UNET Holon, which was the highest-scoring team in the competition and the third-best offensive rating after the first six weeks, has dropped off so dramatically that is now eighth and outside the top-10, respectively.

It is worth noting that Polski Cukier Torun are the highest-scoring team in the competition in absolute terms, averaging 92.9 points per game up until Gameday 9.

OFFENSIVE EFFICIENCY TOP-10

Team	Offensive Rating
Hapoel Jerusalem	119.3
San Pablo Burgos	118.2
RASTA Vechta	114.8
Polski Cukier Torun	114.5
Dinamo Sassari	114.4
AEK	114.3
Anwil Wloclawek	113.6
Turk Telekom	113.0
Lietkabelis	110.3
Telekom Baskets Bonn	110.1

Offensive Efficiency (or Offensive Rating) is defined as the number of points a team scores per 100 possessions

 

Offensive Indicators

It seems that you can always count on Hapoel to shoot the ball well. As the season progresses, the Jerusalem team has been the only side to maintain a top-5 spot in effective field goal percentage throughout, albeit their effective field goal percentage declined slightly to 56.2 percent from 57.5 percent.

Holon have experienced the biggest shooting slump, with their eFG% dropping from an outstanding 59 percent, while Vechta's, Bonn's and Dijon's shooting has improved so much in the past three weeks that have climbed in the top-5, knocking out AEK, Neptunas, in addition to Holon.

The assist ratio table presents the fewer changes of all categories, with Burgos replacing Hapoel in the top-5 since the Gameday 6 snapshot, while Manresa have improved to first from third and Torun, Dijon and Holon maintain their top-5 placements.

The biggest surprise in the offensive indicators is the fact that Sassari, the team with the fifth-best offensive rating in the league, is not in the Top-10 in either eFG% or Assist Ratio, albeit it does have the fourth-best turnover ratio.

EFFECTIVE FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE TOP-10

Team	eFG%
Hapoel Jerusalem	56.2%
RASTA Vechta	56.0%
Telekom Baskets Bonn	55.2%
JDA Dijon	55.2%
UNET Holon	55.0%
San Pablo Burgos	54.9%
AEK	54.9%
Turk Telekom	54.6%
Polski Cukier Torun	54.5%
Neptunas Klaipeda	53.8%

The Effective Field Goal Percentage formula is (Field Goals Made + 0.5 X 3-Pointers Made) divided by (Field Goals Attempted)

ASSIST RATIO TOP-10

Team	Assist Ratio
Baxi Manresa	21.3
JDA Dijon	21.1
Polski Cukier Torun	21.0
San Pablo Burgos	20.0
UNET Holon	20.0
RASTA Vechta	19.9
Iberostar Tenerife	19.5
Hapoel Jerusalem	19.3
Turk Telekom	18.9
Telekom Baskets Bonn	18.9

Assist Ratio is defined as the percentage of possessions that end in an assist

TURNOVER RATIO TOP-10

Team	TO Ratio
Polski Cukier Torun	10.5
Brose Bamberg	10.7
Baxi Manresa	10.8
Dinamo Sassari	11.3
Hapoel Jerusalem	11.4
Anwil Wloclawek	11.6
SIG Strasbourg	11.7
Happy Casa Brindisi	12.2
UNET Holon	12.2
San Pablo Burgos	12.2

Turnover Ratio is defined as the percentage of possessions that end in a turnover

 

Best Defense

Are you a coach struggling to convince your players that you need to build good habits in order to play tough defense and it's not just the result of flipping a switch?

The show them the defensive efficiency table, because it is almost a carbon copy of the Gameday 6 snapshot! The only change is that AEK has replaced Nizhny in fifth place, as the Russian team's rating dropped to 103.9 from 100.8.

The defensive rating of Nymburg, Tenerife, Peristeri and Dijon has remained eerily stable - Tenerife for example were allowing 96.3 points per 100 possessions up until week 6, compared to 96.6 points after week 9.

It is definitely worth noting that all top-5 teams currently hold a win-loss record of 6-3 or better. Tenerife stands at 8-1, Nymburk and AEK at 7-2, Peristeri and Dijon at 6-3. Defense wins championships, somebody said?

DEFENSIVE EFFICIENCY TOP-10

Team	Def. Rating
ERA Nymburk	96.4
Iberostar Tenerife	96.6
Peristeri winmasters	97.9
JDA Dijon	98.2
AEK	102.3
Casademont Zaragoza	102.5
Filou Oostende	103.5
Nizhny Novgorod	103.9
Turk Telekom	104.2
Baxi Manresa	104.8

Defensive Efficiency (or Rating) is defined as the number of points a team allows per 100 possessions

 

No Shooting Please

We might be living in the era of the three-pointer but contesting shots within the arc will never grow old, and the Opponents' 2-Point Shooting Percentage figures of the three best-ranked defensive teams in the competition highlight that fact.

Nymburk, Tenerife and Peristeri, the three best defenses, are also the teams that make life difficult for shooters close to the rim. Remarkably, Peristeri's perfomance here has remained almost unchanged but Nymburk and Tenerife have actually improved during the past three weeks.

The best teams in Opponents' 3-Point Shooting Percentage have also hardly changed as the season progresses, albeit Falco leapfrogged from fourth to first (overtaking Manresa) and AEK moved above Turk Telekom in third place.

OPPONENTS' 2-POINT SHOOTING PERCENTAGE TOP-10

ERA Nymburk	44.0%
Iberostar Tenerife	44.5%
Peristeri winmasters	44.7%
Filou Oostende	46.4%
Casademont Zaragoza	47.1%
Turk Telekom	48.5%
Hapoel Jerusalem	49.9%
Nizhny Novgorod	50.3%
UNET Holon	50.9%
SIG Strasbourg	51.1%

(opponents' percentage, so lower is better)

OPPONENTS' 3-POINT SHOOTING PERCENTAGE TOP-10

Falco Szombathely	27.2%
Baxi Manresa	27.4%
AEK	29.8%
Turk Telekom	30.9%
Casademont Zaragoza	31.1%
Nizhny Novgorod	31.2%
Happy Casa Brindisi	32.2%
Peristeri winmasters	32.2%
Teksut Bandirma	32.3%
ERA Nymburk	32.7%

(opponents' percentage, so lower is better)

  

Battle On The Glass

You would expect that good rebounding teams do not suddenly lose the ability to grab a board and bad rebounding teams do not magically grow longer arms, but the Defensive Rebound Rate table tells a different story.

PAOK, who were in the top spot up until Gameday 7 with an excellent 77 percent rate, are not even in the Top-10 anymore, while Neptunas have jumped to first place while before they were not even in the Top-5. Besiktas however remain in second place throughout the season, despite a slight drop to 73.3 percent from 74.7 percent.

The offensive table on the other hand is much more consistent with what you would logically expect, with the top-4 teams remaining the same. There is only one major change as Bamberg dropped to 10th from 5th, but even that is not so significant statistically, because the German team's rate merely declined to 32.4 percent from 33.6 percent.

OFFENSIVE REBOUND RATE TOP-10

San Pablo Burgos	37.3%
ERA Nymburk	37.2%
Telenet Giants Antwerp	36.5%
Casademont Zaragoza	34.0%
Anwil Wloclawek	33.3%
Lietkabelis	33.3%
Hapoel Jerusalem	32.6%
Falco Szombathely	32.5%
Telekom Baskets Bonn	32.5%
Brose Bamberg	32.4%

DEFENSIVE REBOUND RATE TOP-10

Neptunas Klaipeda	73.6%
Besiktas	73.3%
SIG Strasbourg	73.2%
Filou Oostende	72.8%
Turk Telekom	72.2%
Brose Bamberg	72.0%
Telenet Giants Antwerp	71.8%
Gaziantep	71.1%
ERA Nymburk	70.7%
Dinamo Sassari	70.7%