Game-Winning Buzzer-Beaters in the NBA
Basketball-reference just released a dataset of every NBA game-winning buzzer-beater ever. Let’s take a closer look, then.
A total of 772 shots. Here’s the season-by-season distribution:
On average you would expect there to be 16.5 game-winning buzzer-beater in a 30-team 82-game season. This year’s 5 is way behind the pace.
Most of the shots have been at the rim:
The players to make at least five are as follows:
| player | shots |
|---|---|
| Michael Jordan | 9 |
| Joe Johnson | 8 |
| Kobe Bryant | 8 |
| LeBron James | 7 |
| Paul Pierce | 7 |
| Andre Iguodala | 5 |
| Dwyane Wade | 5 |
| Gilbert Arenas | 5 |
| Kevin Garnett | 5 |
| Vince Carter | 5 |
Fair to say that some of those attempted more shots than others. It’s a shame basketball-reference didn’t list the missed attempts but considering most of the shots were checked manually, and there’d probably be more than a 1000 to check, it’s understandable.
Paul Pierce comes out on top of the assists table as well as the shots+assists table.
| player | assists |
|---|---|
| Paul Pierce | 5 |
| Jason Kidd | 4 |
| Mike Dunleavy | 4 |
| Andre Miller | 3 |
| Bill Bridges | 3 |
| Baron Davis | 3 |
| Chauncey Billups | 3 |
| Grant Hill | 3 |
| Gary Payton | 3 |
| Jose Calderón | 3 |
| Mike Bibby | 3 |
| Scottie Pippen | 3 |
| Vince Carter | 3 |
| Wes Unseld | 3 |
Obviously, not every shot was assisted - 54% did not have an assist.
The Celtics have had the most game-winning buzzer-beaters by a team, as well as the most against. The Knicks stand out with a big positive ratio, The Pistons with a negative.
(some of these abbreviations are very olde-tyme and I have no clue who they are… PRO? TRI? SHE?)