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This Psychological Effect Shapes Almost Every NBA Game
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This Psychological Effect Shapes Almost Every NBA Game

How LeBron, the Celtics, James Wiseman, and Mario Kart explain NBA basketball

Jeremias Engelmann's avatar
Jeremias Engelmann
Apr 09, 2024
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🏀 5x5 | Royce Webb
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This Psychological Effect Shapes Almost Every NBA Game
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L to R: LeBron James; Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown; James WIseman. (Patrick Smith/Adam Glanzman/Luke Hales/Getty Images) Inset: Mario Kart (Hitoshi Yamada/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

An NBA basketball game is not just a series of random, disconnected events.

Instead, players and teams are influenced by the game itself. The score matters, as does the clock.

This is the rubber band effect — one of the most important factors shaping NBA games — and here’s how it works.

This column by Jeremias Engelmann — creator of RPM (Real Plus-Minus) and former analyst for the Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns — is part of our series on making NBA analytics easy.

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A guest post by
Jeremias Engelmann
Basketball analyst. Creator of ESPN's Real Plus-Minus. Formerly with the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks
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