The jump ball tidbits have been lacking lately, but because of how pointless this part of an NBA game tends to be I’m not sure anyone noticed. That’s okay. I added something new where jump ball wins and losses can be found anyway, and that’s current winning and losing streaks. The idea was that since there are a group of players who rack up several jump balls over a season, there will be some who will build up reasonably large winning or losing streaks, and because those players usually take the opening tips we’ll see as soon as the game starts whether the streaks continue or end.[1. Some players lose so often, though, that they stop taking the opening tip or, if they’re guards, only take ‘live’ jump balls that happen during the game.] If they do, great. If not, there wasn’t time spent waiting. It can be just a silly thing to look forward to.
There have been some notable, lasting streaks this season that ended prior to this post. During a Nets-Pistons matchup, the Nets broadcast noted Brook Lopez’s then-eight straight wins on opening tips[1. They left out an overtime jump ball that Lopez lost, but it’s all good.] while Dwight Howard and Mason Plumlee had winning and losing streaks of 16, respectively. It would also make sense if someone like DeAndre Jordan strung together consecutive wins, or if David Lee, one of the worst at jump balls since 1997, couldn’t snap a losing streak by forcing a jump ball against J.J. Barea. Now that they’re teammates in Dallas, that can’t happen, or I don’t think it could.
But things, very strange things happen. Here’s a look at the current top winning and losing streaks so far this season:
We’ll see some of these players multiple times in this post, specifically DeAndre Jordan, David Lee and Beno Udrih. Poor David Lee and Beno Udrih. It’s cool to see Russell Westbrook and Vince Carter on the winning side, and it feels very random to see Rodney Stuckey while some names, like Udrih, Lee, and also Kirk Hinrich may not be too surprising to see in the largest current losing streaks. Looking at the start of some of those streaks and the age of some of the players, it’s possible some won’t have a chance to snap or extend theirs.
Overall, this is quite a variety of players because we’re not separating open and live jump balls, the former used to start games and overtimes while the latter to decide held balls and usually taking place at a free throw line. Below is a look at the largest, current winning and losing streaks of each. I shortened these lists because winning and losing streaks of a few are kind of whatever.
Maybe this makes Lee and Udrih look slightly better, but maybe not. If Lee’s streak doesn’t make sense, it’s because he started an opening tip losing streak before he won his last live jump ball.[1. Similar thing for DeAndre Jordan.] Those tend to be difficult to build big streaks because, unless it’s Tim Duncan who leads all players with over 350 for his career, they can take years to build. Udrih’s is a decade old, Carter surpassed 100 jump balls just this season while Rudy Gay, another wing with a good winning percentage, is barely above that mark, but there’s some potential on both the winning and losing streaks. Maybe Westbrook never loses again.
For the opening tips, Jordan, like Howard earlier this season when he won 16 straight, could definitely build on his streak. Willie Cauley-Stein has a small, but good one of his own after starting his career with 11 straight losses on opening tips. It doesn’t look like Lee or Dirk Nowitzki will have any opportunities to snap their losing streaks, but foul trouble from other Mavs bigs in a close game could force one of them to participate in an overtime jump ball. JaVale McGee, also in the group of consecutive losses, was used in those positions for Dallas, but that failed over a small sample.
Unfortunately, sometimes players with decent streaks, good or bad, face each other and one has to go, or some just don’t get much traction because a lot of matchups can be a coin flip or ~60/40. Looking across the last 20 seasons, though, we get some pretty huge totals that dwarf most that happened/are happening this season:
Alonzo Mourning’s winning streak of 37 (and 50-1 over a stretch) is laughably ahead of the rest of the pack and a little strange that it nearly doubles the rest of the largest winning streaks. It’s probably untouchable unless the league goes incredibly small to start games, except for DeAndre Jordan and the Clippers. Jordan’s on the winning side twice and may find himself on there a third time soon enough. There are some other legendary names like Shaquille O’Neal, Arvydas Sabonis, and Vin Baker.
Unfortunately for the losing streaks, the data I have goes back to 1997 and Dino Radja’s first 23 jump balls in my spreadsheet were all losses, but we don’t know if that streak was larger or not since his career started in 1994. David Lee is only six more losses away from history and just four from his largest losing streak from his days as a New York Knick. Brevin Knight somehow lost 17 straight live jump balls in just under a year when it takes most players multiple seasons to force that many.[1. I made Luke Ridnour’s streak a current one for no reason other than the hope he sees this, puts in major work on his calves (#MuscleWatch), makes a comeback, and snaps his streak. He last played in the 2014-15 season.]
Some of the shortest players over the years, like Muggsy Bogues, just didn’t force enough jump balls to find their way to the longest losing streaks while David Lee and Luis Scola got most of theirs from being overmatched in opening tips. Below is a look at when the jump balls are separated from open and live like before. We get some fresh, random faces from over the years:
Zo’s streak on opening tips is on top despite a few decent runs from Shaq. Along with Jordan, maybe Steven Adams, who is quickly becoming a legend in this mostly pointless area of the game, puts together another legitimate streak before season’s end. Patrick Ewing has a decent margin between him and the next player in live jump balls, which happens to be Jordan’s usual frontcourt partner in Blake Griffin.
It looks like nobody will approach Jason Smith’s 23 straight losses on opening tips this season. Lee had several ones in the double digits, but 15 was his highest. Tristan Thompson, once with a losing streak of 17, has been taking the opening tips for the Cavaliers lately but has been around .500 so far.
These lists have so many random players. It’s cool to see Carter, again, and Steve Francis, but also Troy Hudson and Knight. If we could go back even further, there are probably large winning streaks from Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. It’s too bad that isn’t possible with play-by-play data, but you can find the current streaks at the jump ball stats page.[1. I would include streaks for just open and live jump balls, but it’s been difficult putting this into Tableau.]
Jump ball stats are from NBA.com’s play-by-play data.
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