Even The Beverly Hills Cop Is Getting Excited
An interesting stat came to mind as the Lakers/Mavs series is set to start. Kobe and Dirk have never played each other in the playoffs. The table below tries to find out if this quirky stat is because they just missed playing each other in some years or because they weren’t on track to play each other.
The table assumes that the Western Conference Playoffs go chalk, or all the higher seeds win their series. An example of how the chart works is: If the playoffs went according to the seeding, the Lakers should have played Denver 3 times, but only played them twice.
I think the real interesting stat is not that the Lakers and Mavs haven’t played each other in the playoffs during the Kobe-Dirk era, but that they were only expected to play once in the 9 times that they have been in the playoffs together. No other Western Conference team had as many common playoff appearances with Lakers, with as few expected matchups with the Lakers.
Lakers-Mavs: A Rare Playoffs Treat
Even The Beverly Hills Cop Is Getting Excited
An interesting stat came to mind as the Lakers/Mavs series is set to start. Kobe and Dirk have never played each other in the playoffs. The table below tries to find out if this quirky stat is because they just missed playing each other in some years or because they weren’t on track to play each other.
The table assumes that the Western Conference Playoffs go chalk, or all the higher seeds win their series. An example of how the chart works is: If the playoffs went according to the seeding, the Lakers should have played Denver 3 times, but only played them twice.
I think the real interesting stat is not that the Lakers and Mavs haven’t played each other in the playoffs during the Kobe-Dirk era, but that they were only expected to play once in the 9 times that they have been in the playoffs together. No other Western Conference team had as many common playoff appearances with Lakers, with as few expected matchups with the Lakers.
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