WNBA Playoffs: Stats Roundup
As the WNBA Finals came to a close last night, let’s review some of the most impressive stats from the 2018 WNBA playoffs:
WNBA Finals Stats
Seattle outscored the Mystics 169–131 when Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird, Jewell Loyd and Natasha Howard were on the floor together. When the Storm’s core four weren’t all on the court, they lost to the Mystics 93–100.
Through the Finals, the Storm had 64 assists on 99 made field goals. That adds up to an assist rate of 64.6 percent. The Mystics had just 39 assists on 88 field goals (44 percent assist rate).
Elena Delle Donne did not miss a single free throw in the Finals. In fact, she didn’t miss a free throw in the entire playoffs. She was 9–9 from the line in the finals and a perfect 32–32 in the playoffs.
Natasha Howard was unstoppable from the floor during the finals. She scored 56 points in the series, including a career-high 29 in Game 3. In Game 3 she was ultra-efficient scoring 1.74 points per scoring attempt. Howard also pulled down the board on 21.4 percent of Storm misses when she was on the floor. In contrast, the entire Mystics team corraled the rebound 23 percent of their own misses. Howard also had a defensive rebounding rate of 25.8%.
Rookie Ariel Atkins shined for the Washington Mystics. She scored 47 points in the Finals to surpass Maya Moore for most points in the playoffs by a rookie. Atkins’ performance in Game 1 was particularly impressive as she scored 23 points on 1.53 points per possession (14 field goal attempts, 2 free throw attempts, and 0 turnovers).
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More Team Stats
In their five-game semifinal series, the Atlanta Dream posted a block rate of 11.3 percent, meaning they blocked over 11 percent of the Washington Mystics’ two-point attempts.
The Phoenix Mercury led the league, collectively scored 1.17 points per scoring attempt (PPSA) during their playoff run. They also ranked first in PPSA during the regular season, with 1.15 PPSA.
More Player Stats
You can’t talk about these playoffs without talking about DeWanna Bonner. She averaged a double-double, adding 24.0 points and 11.1 rebounds per game for the Mercury in the playoffs. She corralled 28.3 percent of the defensive rebounds available while on the floor and scored 1.23 points per scoring attempt.
Despite the Connecticut Sun playing only one game in the playoffs, sixth woman of the year Jonquel Jones posted one of the most impressive stat lines. In just 26 minutes of playoff play, she tallied 13 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds. She collected 25 percent of available defensive rebounds and scored 1.44 points per possession (9 scoring attempts and 0 turnovers).
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All data is from the Positive Residual and WNBA.com databases.
