Note: Plus/minus for individual games is a questionable stat in terms of evaluating comprehensive, long term individual player impact. It merely indicates when teams performed well or poorly in a particular matchup and a particular game, which at a minimum speaks to a particular configuration performing or not against another team. This can speak to when a team won the game, which can be interesting and I do find interesting. Did they create a lead with their bench or did they create a lead with their starters?
For example, the numbers from last night suggest Jokic outplayed his minutes against AD, and this was important, and that Yuta and Jordan over-delivered in their role player capacity off the bench.
Nuggets defeat Lakers by 12.
- Nikola Jokic (+15)
- Gabe Vincent (-17)
- Anthony Davis (-17)
Suns defeat Warriors by 4.
- Yuta Wantabe (+7)
- Jordan Goodwin (+7)
- Andrew Wiggins (-22)
https://www.espn.com/nba/scoreboard
Few quick observations about some of these players that stood out to me in the opening night games:
Jokic looked unstoppable. It’s truly a marvel how good he is.
Yuta was making an impact on both ends of the floor whenever he was out there. Really like this guy’s hustle.
Anthony Davis had such a strong start to the game then really really struggled the second half. Denver did a fantastic job containing him in the latter part of the game.