NBA Historical Play-by-Play Data • 2009-10

$30

Overview

NBA play-by-play stats are offered in CSV format that has all events occur in a game. Additionally, it includes five-man lineups on the floor, shot distances and shot locations in X, Y coordinates. You get individual game logs and a combined file for the season which includes all games from the regular season and playoffs.

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Description

Description

Frequently Asked Questions for Play-by-Play Dataset

What does the play-by-play data include?

Each season dataset comes up with 2 types of files: 1) Individual CSV files for all games played in the regular season and the playoffs. 2) A season-to-date CSV file where all CSV game files are combined. Having this file, you can analyze the whole season stats in one sheet. In brief, our database-friendly (each play presented in a row) log includes every in-game movement such as: “Active players on the court”, “event time (remaining/elapsing)”, “play length & id”, “activity type (substitution/shot/free throw/turnover/foul committed & drawn/rebound/assist/jump ball etc.)”, “shot location” and “shot coordinates”.

Unzip the sample dataset and open the “(2016-06-10)-0041500404-GSW@CLE.xlsx” where descriptions for all columns have been already provided. Keep in mind that, those descriptions do not appear on the season game logs, so we recommend you to keep the sample file easily accessible until you get familiar with the play-by-play fields.

IMPORTANT: About Referee Names in Description

NBA has made referee names in play-by-play feeds available since the 2015-2016 season. This dataset’s event descriptions DO NOT include referee names in the description field.

What size is a season of play-by-play dataset?

Understanding Coordinates in an NBA Court

About the corrected errors in the logs

Due to human errors made while charting the plays, there will be cases where the results of the sequences are inputted incorrectly or the order of the events might be wrong.
Errors on such as;
– unclassified (offensive/defensive) rebounds,
– disorder in the flow of: missed shot >> offensive rebound >> field goal attempt,
– made field goals which are accidentally inputted 4 points or more,
– Zero points inputted on made free throws,
have already been corrected by us.

How is an individual game log being named?

How are the five-man lineups determined in the play-by-play logs?

We have developed a proprietary algorithm in which, substitutions and the relevant game events (points, fouls, getting fouled, assist, steals and etc.) that are assigned to players are taken into account. Note that; despite being a very rare situation, if the player does not record anything or did not take part in any game event while he’s on the court, the chances are our algorithm might not be 100% accurate.

What analysis can be done with the play-by-play dataset?