Bottom line: Remember when the critics considered "King James" to be the very definition of "unclutch"? Ray Allen's game tying three pointer from game 6 of the 2013 Finals, pointing out John Candy in the stands to his teammates, Super Bowl Squares - Every Score Pays Out, Clutch Shooting Isn't Easy (unless it's a free throw), The Turnover Index (possibly overfit edition). The star is the difference maker that do one thing well above the others or do a lot of things well. Post #1 » by fallacy » Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:25 pm . Ranking NBA's clutch players: LeBron, Durant among current top 10 4y Tom Haberstroh Diego Maradona will be remembered as one of soccer's greatest, the sport's ultimate flawed genius Because if we knew how many games that "Mr. Type Combine Contexts Combine NBA Top Key Name NBA Top Key Definition A player takes five shots from top of the key. Need more? As Keating mentions in his article, clutch play is best measured with tools like Win Probability Added. NBA. Look for these new stats to show up soon in the win probability graphs and player total pages. Career: 1984-93, 1994-98, 2001-03 (13 seasons), Postseason stats/game: 33.4 PTS, 6.4 REB, 5.7 AST, 2.1 STL, NBA championships: 6 (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998). LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers hits the game winning shot with 0.7 seconds left against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center during Game 4 ⦠And his five buzzer-beaters are the most in league history? It occurs in basketball, hockey, football, esports, and other sports but the phrase is most common in baseball (e.g. I feel like if you just narrow clutch to the last shot or 24 seconds, there would be too much randomness. SCORES. Clutch shot percentage: NA. And better still, CP led the Thunder to 29-14 record in clutch games. Most can agree on this much — some athletes are calmer, cooler and more confident than others when the stakes are highest. The possibility mightâve occurred to some as early as 2007, when a 22-year-old LeBron James dragged a thoroughly overmatched Cleveland Cavaliers roster to the NBA ⦠Postseason stats/game: 18.9 PTS, 4.7 REB, 2.3 AST, N/A, NBA championships: 10 (1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969). It occurs in basketball, hockey, football, esports, and other sports but the phrase is most common in baseball (e.g. Bottom line: "Ray can be 0-for-99 in a game, and if he gets an open look late in the game, it's going down," his Miami Heat teammate LeBron James once said. Feel free to. The fact that "Hondo" was a go-to guy with eight league champions didn’t hurt, either. Many are convinced that it exists. clutch hitter). He ranks 15th in win shares per 48 minutes in playoff history. In the NBA, the term âclutch', is defined as "the plays that occur during the 4th quarter or overtime, with less than five minutes remaining, and neither team ahead by more than five points". Coincidently, Kobe has also missed his last 8 clutch (same definition) shots however this time these shots werenât in the regular season but in the post season! Eight years later, he was the MVP of the greatest NBA Finals upset ever. By our unofficial count, there were more than two dozen of them — and that didn’t include his 63-foot jaw-dropper in the 1970 NBA Finals, a game that his team went on to lose. Bottom line: Six NBA Finals trips, six NBA Finals MVP awards. Postseason stats/game: 29.1 PTS, 5.6 REB, 6.3 AST, N/A. When points are desperately needed, a clutch performer is needed. No star can carry a team to a champioship, but ⦠Postseason stats/game: 19.5 PTS, 7.7 REB, 12.3 AST, 1.9 STL. Clutch performance in sports is the phenomenon of athletes under pressure or "in the clutch", usually in the last minutes of a game, to summon strength, concentration and whatever else necessary to succeed, to perform well, and perhaps change the outcome of the game. Teams: New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Postseason stats/game: 20.7 PTS, 7.2 REB, 6.2 AST, 2.1* STL. IT and Westbrook's stats are insane which checks out. Postseason stats/game: 25.3 PTS, 10.0 REB, 2.5 AST, 1.0 STL. Hence, they are more likely to succeed in those situations. Bottom line:. There are many definitions as to what people define as âclutchâ. 2018-19 Player Stats: Advanced 2020-21 Player Stats: Advanced League Champion : Los Angeles Lakers Most Valuable Player : Giannis Antetokounmpo (29.5/13.6/5.6) The bank-shot artist might have been the NBA Finals MVP in three consecutive seasons (1963-65) if the award had existed (the first one was awarded in 1969). NBA Clutch Shooting Breakdown. Without further ado, here are the 10 most clutch scorers in the NBA today. Final 1 minute of a game since 2000 LeBron James is the kind of a player who's first attempt is to make the right play. When it comes to big-time shots, you want the ball in their hands. So why doesn’t "The Diesel" rank higher in the order? The table below shows the top ten players by total "clutch WPA". STANDINGS. In Game 7s, the guy has been money — 33.3 points on 55 percent in the field. Other than Antetokounmpo, of course. We can calculate the expected WPA (eWPA) contributions for every type of play that contributes to Win Probability Added. Clutch" decided in the final seconds, minds would boggle. Kobe Bryant. The fine print: Clutch shot percentage includes field-goal attempts that tie the score or give a team the lead in the final 60 seconds of fourth quarters and/or overtime periods. In a span of six seasons, five of which his Lakers won it all, he was the postseason leader in points five times and rebounds three times. The 34-year-old point guard has been the NBA's top clutch-time scorer this season and with one more made 3, would be a 50-40-90 player in the final five minutes and score within five. Team:. JOEL EMBIID . Position:. The framework I have established here can also be easily applied to just free throw shooting. Let's take one of the most famous clutch shots in recent memory: Clutch can also go the other way, with a player failing to step up in big situations. The odds of winning a game when down by 6 with 18 seconds left are approximately 250 to 1 . that is the shot that matters most. NBA Mascot Leadership Award-2010, 2009 Contributing author, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inside Basketball, published 2009 Winner, Idea Conferenceâs Mascot Video Skit of the Year-2007, 2006, 2004 In 11 of his first 12 postseasons, the 2011 NBA Finals MVP averaged between 23.4 and 28.4 points per game in all except one of them. Some insist there is no such thing. OrlandoMagic.com's Josh Cohen ranks the 10 most clutch players in NBA history. With 6:24 left in the fourth quarter and his team up 94-69, Dwyane Wade missed a 14 foot jump shot. This page tracks true shooting percentage statistics. Postseason stats/game: 24.0 PTS, 13.9* REB, 2.2 AST, N/A, NBA championships: 5 (1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954). Home of WNBA Advanced Stats - Official WNBA Statistics and Advanced Analytics. 98 total points (14 th) 82 minutes (104 th) 53.2% FG (18 th) (tied) 46.2% 3P (13 attempts) 6. Not did Paul lead the NBA in total clutch points, but he is doing so on 52.2 percent field goal shooting, while seemingly finding an open man whenever he wasn’t scoring. So enough talk and on with the stats! The transformation was punctuated by the Death Stare, the stone-cold glare at LeBron James that followed his pull-up 3 and capped the first of his back-to-back NBA Finals MVP selections. Clutch shot percentage: .419* (49 of 117), Postseason stats/game: 20.6 PTS, 11.4 REB, 3.0 AST, 2.3 STL, NBA championships: 5 (1999, 2003, 2005 2007, 2014). A player tagged with the "clutch" label is often presumed to be in possession of a certain mental fortitude. To paraphrase, most players see large variations in their âclutchâ stats from year to year, and it is rare to find players who can consistently perform better in clutch situations. only count a play as clutch if it is in the top 25% percentile in WPA for that type of play, as opposed to just being above average). In the near future, I plan on adding these new clutch stats to my NBA box scores and player total pages, but until I do, here are the totals for this season. He was pretty good in eight Game 7s as well — 27.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 6.8 assists. The answer: a helluva lot more than anyone remembers. In three of those, he had the most offense and defense win shares of any player in the field. Against every other team, he was merely very good. Hey, we're talkin’ to you, Scottie Pippen! Bottom line: "St. Stephen of Arc" is one of 40 players (minimum: 25 games played) to connect on at least 40 percent of his 3-pointers in the postseason. Can you think of a more dramatic buzz-bomb than his corner jumper in the 2019 Eastern Conference semis, the one that danced on the rim not once, not twice, not thrice but four times before it sent the Raptors to the next round? Season:. Kobe, the modern day MJ, is undoubtedly the most iconic clutch player of the 21st century. Postseason stats/game: 23.8 PTS, 10.3 REB, 6.5 AST, 1.8 STL. And better still, CP led the Thunder to 29-14 record in clutch games. And how many times did he deliver? His team's record in those games: 7-2. For the 2016 NBA Finals, James led the Cleveland Cavaliers in points (30), rebounds (11), assists (nine), steals (three), and blocks (two). NBA Players Comparison: Career Stats and Achievements NBA stars' data put side by side with information that includes championships won, honors and awards, Season and Playoffs stats and more. if you cant seal the deal, it was all for nothing. Today though we will look at some more comprehensive indicators to try and get closer to an overall player ranking scheme. As currently defined, this approach will credit a player for clutch WPA in situations where most would agree don't really belong in a definition of clutch play. When he averaged at least 24 minutes per game in the playoffs, his teams won six league titles in 11 seasons. Clutch is a really hard term to define. Team:. Bottom line: The two-time NBA Finals MVP took down LeBron James and the Miami Heat dynasty. BLK - Blocks (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA) BLK% - Block Percentage (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (BLK * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Opp FGA - Opp 3PA)). Source(s): making jumpshots during the game is nothing, making them when you are down by 3 with 5 seconds left in the game. Yet no one drained more ridiculous money balls, either. Would you believe that Bron-Bron has hit eight shots to tie or win games in the final seven seconds, two more than Michael Jordan himself? To put Paulâs numbers into historical perspective, I looked at the clutch stats for every player since the 1996-97 season, which is as far back as the data goes on the NBAâs Advanced Stats ⦠The way I see it, the NBA breaks down into to categories: clutch and guts. That was a slight exaggeration, of course, but you get the point. Home of WNBA Advanced Stats - Official WNBA Statistics and Advanced Analytics. Playoffs: But define your terms so that clutch doesn't mean one thing on Monday and another on Thursday just so you can defend your favorite player. Tough to be like Mike. Olajuwon averaged 4.1 more points in the playoffs than the regular season (21.8). An ability to maintain a cool head in high pressure situations (think Joe Montana. 98 total points (14 th) 82 minutes (104 th) 53.2% FG (18 th) (tied) 46.2% 3P (13 attempts) He and Michael Jordan are the only guards with as many as three NBA Finals MVP selections on their resumes. See results from the NBA Clutch Scoring Leaders (2000-Pres.) Click through this slideshow for full rankings and analysis. His 43.8 field goal percentage on those clutch shots ranks the best in the NBA since his rookie season among players with at least 10 attempts. Game 7s didn’t phase Big Blue, either, as he averaged 29.2 points and 16.2 rebounds in six of those. Home of NBA Advanced Stats - Official NBA Statistics and Advanced Analytics. Of course, that doesn’t include all those fouls he drew and defensive stops he willed and teammates he made better with games on the line. The latest NBA news, rumors, highlights, videos, photos and more. Only three guards own a higher career field-goal percentage (.511) in the playoffs. The league average is … Last month , I rolled out a new version of m... Last Thursday night, the Bulls trailed the Thunder at home by 1 point with 4.9 seconds left on the clock. True, the two-time NBA Finals MVP jacked up too many H-O-R-S-E shots over the years, many of them with multiple defenders in his grill. Armed with these values, we can then breakdown a player's WPA into two components: "expected WPA" (eWPA) and "clutch WPA" (clWPA). Coincidently, Kobe has also missed his last 8 clutch (same definition) shots however this time these shots weren’t in the regular season but in the post season! Clutch players are often defined by isolated plays and moments, but James’ resume has him completely taking over entire contests — from every facet and … I already summarize player. Bottom line: Timmy liked to pick his spots in the 82-game taffy pull, but when the games really counted, he upped his game to a whole other level. To be 'clutch' by definition, Kobe or Michael or LeBron would have to make a statistically significant higher percentage of shots under pressure (or 'crunch' time). For example... My examples above (Ray Allen's three pointer and Lebron's turnover) are both clear cases of positive clutch play (Ray) and negative clutch play (Lebron). An unsightly .473 free-throw percentage in 13 close-out playoff losses. Sortable NBA Player "Clutch" Stats For these stats "Clutch" is defined as: 4th quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points 2011-2012 NBA Season Stats Last update: 4/01/2012. clutch hitter). Ray Allen's cold-blooded 3 that tied the score with nine ticks left in Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals was the stuff of legends. Bottom line: "Durantula" blew hot and cold in crunch time early in his career, but no sooner did he drop anchor in the Bay Area than he became a certified assassin. The regular season and postseason have been combined to increase the sample sizes. Follow the action on NBA scores, schedules, stats, news, Team and Player news. Likewise, measure clutch performance with smart tools like Win Probability Added, but don't expect to predict it. Based on a combination of factors that include clutch field-goal percentage, postseason metrics and career achievements, these players were at the front of the clutch gene line. Postseason stats/game: 25.9 PTS, 11.2 REB, 3.2 AST, 3.3 STL. A clutch pass or a clutch block is just as important as clutch game-winning shots. Statistics are through the 2018-19 season. The league average is ⦠Clutch shot percentage: .338* (97 of 287), Postseason stats/game: 25.6 PTS, 5.1 REB, 4.7 AST, 1.4 STL, NBA championships: 5 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010). They don't. Bottom line: Too bad so little data exists from the pre-3-point era. Most Clutch NBA Teams: Teams----PTS PER Scoring OPP Jazz 1.23 Mavs 1.23 Spurs 1.21 Warriors 1.20 Thunder 1.17 So the thunder are the 5th most clutch team in the NBA which surprised me a lot. Teams: Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, Postseason stats/game: 24.3 PTS, 11.6 REB, 2.7 AST, 2.1 STL, NBA championships: 4 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006). Over the years both super-stars have had their fair share of clutch moments but letâs look at the facts and step away from the narratives for a second.. Avec son ton décalé et sans langue de bois, TrashTalk traite de l'actu NBA & Basket au quotidien. The others: Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson, LeBron James. Respect clutch achievement, even if it's not predictable. Get this: Only Michael Jordan (.255) had more win shares per 48 minutes in the playoffs. That turnover, coming late in the game with a chance to tie or take the lead, cost -15% in WPA. Honorable Mentions: Luka Doncic, Jamal Crawford, D’Angelo Russell, Jimmy Butler, Chris … Quiz Stats - By nba2439 Random Quiz In the 1967 NBA Finals, "Super Soph" put up an epic 40.8/8.8/3.3 slash line versus the mighty Philadelphia 76ers. Not did Paul lead the NBA in total clutch points, but he is doing so on 52.2 percent field goal shooting, while seemingly finding an open man whenever he wasnât scoring. Position:. that is being clutch. A 5 time champion and 2 time NBA Finals MVP, Kobe has hit more game winning shots than one can even count his two fingers – just look him up on Youtube under “Kobe clutch shots” and you will be hooked for hours. it doesn't matter if you had 45 points in the game. And nobody has drained more. Data that is incomplete (asterisk) or not available (N/A) are marked accordingly. Kellerman claimed Kawhi Leonard is more clutch than Kobe Bryant ever was and even said Leonard is more clutch than LeBron James. Jay Williams couldn't believe what he was hearing. On a bum knee, no less. NBA NFL MLB GAMING BETTING SOCCER EDITORIALS CLUTCH AUTHORITY STORE GET THE APP ADVERTISE WITH US. Only the lack of an NBA Finals MVP award prevents a higher rank here. NBA Corner Right Definition A player takes five shots from the right corner area of the court. One year later, he put up a 22.0/13.7/7.7 slash line in three consecutive Game 7s en route to another league title. For years, his number was the one that coach Pat Riley called most on plays after timeouts, especially in crucial moments. 5 minutes or 2 minutes seem good and it allows for more accurate comparisons between players. He outplayed George Mikan and Bill Russell in two memorable Game 7 performances on the road, only to have his underdog team fall short both times. And I can use my win probability framework to come up with a simple and intuitive definition of garbage time plays. NBA Clutch Players, part III In part one of this series on NBA clutch performers, we tackled measures of Clutch Scoring, and in Part Two we brought in looks at plus/minus, rebounding, passing, and shot creating. Bottom line: How could "Clyde" not win an NBA Finals MVP Award? NBA Clutch Shooting Breakdown. To make the equation balance, I need to assign Wade, These types of situations, where both good and bad plays have little to no impact are what is commonly referred to as "garbage time". Teams: Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers. All stats are per 36 minutes, requiring at least 10 minutes played in clutch situations, and TS% requires a minimum of 15 FGA in clutch situations BLK - Blocks (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA) BLK% - Block Percentage (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (BLK * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Opp FGA - Opp 3PA)). Free NBA basketball player stats and splits in simple, easy to read tables. Bottom line: The 1974 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player made the cut on four words alone — Havlicek stole the ball (Game 7, 1965 Eastern Division finals). Advanced stats on nice raw stats and entertainment, thats all, its just a team sports, if guys do their roles well, they win. Bottom line: Because "Mr. Basketball" played way back, back, back when, he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for his complete and utter dominance in the pivot, especially in high-stakes games. Then there was "Hakeem the Dream," the clutch in Clutch City who outplayed Patrick Ewing and Shaquille O’Neal as the NBA Finals MVP a decade later. The table below shows the top clutch free throw shooters this season: I think there's plenty more that can be done within this framework. Bottom line: There was "Akeem the Team," the young pup who carried the Rockets past the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers in the 1986 Western Conference finals. Teams: Milwaukee Bucks, Seattle SuperSonics, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Clutch shot percentage: .365* (54 of 148), Postseason stats/game: 16.1 PTS, 3.8 REB, 2.6 AST, 1.0 STL. What’s more, his 35.3/9.1/7.3/1.6/0.9 slash line in 2009 may be the best ever in one postseason. Heck, he could have been the 1970 MVP on his momentous 36-point, 19-assist, seven-rebound performance in Game 7 alone. Clutch defines a full body of work, an entire game, an entire series, a string of great performances. Bottom line: "Dirty" averaged 3.2 more points per game in the playoffs than the regular season (22.1), among the largest differentials for regulars in league history. So, here is the final result, where I can now breakdown a player's WPA contributions into three numbers: The sign convention for garbage time WPA (gbWPA) is going to be confusing no mater what, but I have chosen to define garbage time WPA such that a player that amasses a lot of "good" stats during garbage time will have a positive gbWPA. Postseason stats/game: 19.5 PTS, 12.2* REB, 2.6 AST, N/A. Itâs a question thatâs asked among many NBA fans; whoâs more clutch between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. His 43.8 field goal percentage on those clutch shots ranks the best in the NBA since his rookie season among players with at least 10 attempts. If LBJ hadn’t arrived to the clutch party a tad late, he would be in the discussion for numero uno. He accounted for 18 of his team’s final 21 points. Among bigs, only Shaquille O’Neal owns as many NBA Finals MVP trophies (three) in the 3-ball era. Still others say the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Now check out that crazy good clutch shot percentage. A clutch pass or a clutch block is just as important as clutch game-winning shots. Season:. Block percentage is an estimate of the percentage of opponent two-point field goal attempts blocked by the player while he was on the floor. Being clutch means getting what you need. Clutch performance in sports is the phenomenon of athletes under pressure or "in the clutch", usually in the last minutes of a game, to summon strength, concentration and whatever else necessary to succeed, to perform well, and perhaps change the outcome of the game. I have summarized those results in the table below (these numbers come from the 2012-2013 NBA season). Home of NBA G League Advanced Stats - Official NBA G League Statistics and Advanced Analytics. Take "Larry Legend," who’s remembered as much for his steals in Game 5 of the 1985 and 1987 Eastern Conference finals as much as any late shot. I'm also considering alternate definitions of clutch and garbage time, with perhaps a focus on just the more extreme situations on both sides (e.g. NBA clutch stats . Teams: San Francisco-Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Postseason stats/game: 24.8 PTS, 5.6 REB, 4.6 AST, 2.2* STL. A case could be made for him in the 1970 and 1973 championship rounds. Postseason stats/game: 19.5 PTS, 7.7 REB, 12.3 AST, 1.9 STL, NBA championships: 5 (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988). Clutch," not Jerry West, who would share the title a few years later. NBA championships: 5 (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988) Bottom line: While known primarily as a ball distributor, the "Showtime" orchestrator could take matters into his own right hand when necessary. Against the New York Knicks, Mr. Or, in equation form: WPA = eWPA + clWPA. Teams: Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Brooklyn Nets, Postseason stats/game: 29.1 PTS, 7.7 REB, 4.0 AST, 1.0 STL. While this is a straightforward and reasonable definition of clutch situations, it can clearly be improved. The would-be 1955 NBA Finals MVP ranks 17th in career win shares per 48 minutes in the postseason. 15.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 3.3 blocked shots per game. They don't. Block percentage is an estimate of the percentage of opponent two-point field goal attempts blocked by the player while he was on the floor. Plus Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, too. When the game is on the line, we want the rock in the hands of someone with big cojones. At the beginning of this season, they won 24 games in a row1, which set the new NBA record and during that time, many experts were talking about how to defeat Warriors on Sortable NBA Player "Clutch" Stats For these stats "Clutch" is defined as: 4th quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points 2011-2012 NBA Season Stats Last update: 4/01/2012. And nobody had bigger ones than this guy, Michael Jordan included. LeBron is known by many fans as a “choker” whereas Kobe was still known as “clutch” despite the fact that he had missed the same number of shots in a more important situation! The 34-year-old point guard has been the NBA's top clutch-time scorer this season and with one more made 3, would be a 50-40-90 player in the final five minutes and score within five. Postseason stats/game: 21.1 PTS, 5.2 REB, 3.2 AST, 1.2 STL. Last 25 seconds in NBA Finals James 0/7 (0.0%) Jordan 4/8 (50.0%) Clutch-time scoring in NBA Finals James 85 pts (30.8%) Jordan 126 pts (46.9%) Top 5 Clutch-time pts Series James 17 pts 15 pts 14 pts 12 pts 09 pts Jordan 38 pts (1993) 30 pts 23 pts 16 pts 15 pts Worst 3 clutch-time pts Series James 0 pts 2 pts 3 pts Jordan 4 pts 15 pts 16 pts "The Logo" fun fact: In the NBA's first 24 years of existence, his two buzzer-beaters were one more than the rest of the league had combined in its first 24 years of existence. To put Paul’s numbers into historical perspective, I looked at the clutch stats for every player since the 1996-97 season, which is as far back as the data goes on the NBA’s Advanced Stats site. On average, a turnover is worth -2% in WPA. Truth is, Bill Russell would have fewer NBA championship rings if not for the teammate who averaged 27.1 points in nine Game 7s, all of them victories. The shot is from the distance of an NBA three pointer (23 ft. 9 in.) The WPA for this miss was literally 0%. Postseason stats/game: 22.0 PTS, 6.9 REB, 4.8 AST, 1.1* STL, NBA championships: 8 (1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1976). Click on a column header to sort by that stat Production per 48 Minutes of Clutch ⦠I put together the table below to illustrate when I count a play as "clutch" and when I count it as "garbage time". If he hadn’t spent much of his athletic prime in the rival ABA, he would be further up the list. JOEL EMBIID . Postseason win shares/48 minutes: .208. From "The Shot" (1989 Eastern Conference first round) to "The Push-off" (Game 6, 2007 NBA Finals), there was no more lethal late-game shot-maker in hoops history. From the table above, the eWPA is -1.5% for a missed field goal, and we already know the total WPA was 0%. Clutch may be the most misunderstood word in pro basketball. The way I see it, the NBA breaks down into to categories: clutch and guts. Quiz on Sporcle, the best trivia site on the internet! LeBron is known by many fans as a âchokerâ whereas Kobe was still known as âclutchâ despite the fact that he had missed the same number of shots in a more important situation! No moment was bigger than "The Mamba," whose supreme confidence, outrageous athleticism and flair for the dramatic made him one of the all-time greatest closers. Bottom line: Contrary to widespread belief, this was the original "Mr. For several years running, this outlook completely swung the balance of power in the East.