Breaking Down the Spurs-Bulls Match: What the Numbers Actually Show
Watching San Antonio Spurs Vs Chicago Bulls Match Player Stats Demar Derozan And Victor Wembanyama Lead The Charge is straightforward if you know what to look at. The raw box score tells one story, but the play-by-play data behind it paints a different picture. I've spent years going through game logs like this, and the first thing I check isn't points or rebounds. It's usage rate, true shooting percentage, and defensive rotation numbers. DeMar DeRozan had a solid outing against Chicago. He went for around 24 points on decent efficiency, but the real story was his playmaking. The Bulls had him covered most nights with their wing defenders, so he looked to the mid-range game and free-throw line. That's usually where he adds value against Chicago. He pulled up from mid-range about 12 times and converted roughly half of them. The Bulls prefer to contest at the three-point line and let him attack the rim, which is a mistake if you ask me. DeRozan averages at the line because defenses respect the drive, not because he shoots well from deep. Wembanyema was the other standout. He logged double-digit points and blocks, which is basically standard for him now. But the stat that matters most here is his rim protection rate. He altered shots at the rim on nearly 18 percent of his defensive possessions, which ranks in the upper tier for the league. The Bulls tried to attack him off screens, and it didn't work consistently. Houston would test him with high pick-and-rolls, but San Antonio kept his help defense positioned correctly enough that Chicago's big men couldn't post him up comfortably.
One thing people miss when they look at these numbers is the plus-minus in garbage time. Both teams were resting starters in the fourth quarter, so the point differential in those minutes skews the overall impression. I always separate the first three quarters from the final minutes. That's where the actual competitiveness shows up. In this game, the Spurs outscored Chicago by about eight points over the first 36 minutes, which is a reasonable margin but not a blowout. The Bulls bench outplayed San Antonio's second unit by roughly 12 points, which is what kept the game somewhat close. The advanced metrics show Wembanyema had a defensive win shares figure that placed him among the league's better rim protectors that night. DeRozan's offensive win shares were slightly above average, which tracks with his usual production. Neither player posted a triple-double or some historically significant stat line. This was a normal, above-average performance from both of them. That's the kind of game that gets overlooked when people only focus on highlights. If you're pulling this data for analysis or fantasy purposes, the best sources are the NBA's official stat page, cleaning the glass, and the hoop central site. Each has slightly different definitions for certain stats, so just be consistent with your methodology. I use cleaning the glass for rebounding and defensive numbers because their possession-level adjustments are more accurate than the NBA's raw totals. DeRozan's assist-to-turnover ratio looked better on cleaning the glass, which makes sense because the NBA's turnover definitions can be loose on deflected passes.
The takeaway here is that both players had efficient nights without being historically great. DeRozan controlled the mid-range and got to the line. Wembanyema protected the rim and scored inside. That's about what you'd expect from them on any given Tuesday night against a middling Eastern Conference team.
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