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Basketball Data Analytics Data Science NBA NBA Finals NBA Playoffs Sports Statistics

Basketball Paper Update

Everyone by now knows about this paper I wrote a few months ago: http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.05266 Using data science / machine learning methodologies, it basically showed that the most important factors in characterizing a team’s playoff eligibility are the opponent field goal percentage and the opponent points per game. This seems to suggest that defensive factors as […]

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Basketball Mathematics NBA NBA Finals Physics Science

The Mathematics of The Triangle Offense, Continued…

In a previous post, I showed how given random positions of 5 players on the court that they could “fill” the triangle. The main geometric constraint is that 5 players can form 3 triangles on the court, and that due to spacing requirements, these triangles are “optimal” if they are equilateral triangles. Given that we […]

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Cosmology General Relativity Mathematics Physics Science

The Possible Initial States of The Universe

Most people when talking about cosmology typically talk about the universe in one context, that is, as a particular solution to the Einstein field equations. Part of my research in mathematical cosmology is to try to determine whether the present-day universe which we observe to be very close to spatially flat and homogeneous, and very […]

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Cosmology General Relativity Mathematics Physics Science

Attempts at a General Einstein Equation for an Arbitrary FLRW Cosmology

I tried to derive a general Einstein field equation for an arbitrary FLRW cosmology. That is, one that can handle any of the possible spatial curvatures: hyperbolic, spherical, or flat. Deriving the equation was easy, solving it was not! It ends up being a nonlinear, second-order ODE, with singularities at a=0, which turns out to […]

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Mathematics Physics Science

A Really Quick Derivation of The Cauchy-Riemann Equations

Here is a really quick derivation of the Cauchy-Riemann equations of complex analysis. Consider a function of a complex variable, , where , such that: , where and are real-valued functions. An analytic function is one that is expressible as a power series in . That is, . Then, . We formally differentiate this equation […]

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Basketball Data Analytics Data Science Mathematics NBA NBA Finals Sports Statistics

What are the factors behind Golden State’s and Cleveland’s Wins in The NBA Finals

As I write this, Cleveland just won the series 4-3. What was behind each team’s wins and losses in this series? First, Golden State: A correlation plot of their per game predictor variables versus the binary win/loss outcome is as follows:  The key information is in the last column of this matrix:  Evidently, the most […]

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Basketball Mathematics NBA NBA Finals NBA Playoffs Physics Science

The Mathematics of “Filling the Triangle”

I’ve been fascinated by the triangle offense for a long time. I think it is a beautiful way to play basketball, and the right way to play basketball, in the half-court, a “system-based” way to play. For those of you that are interested, I highly recommend Tex Winter’s classic book on the topic. There is […]

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Basketball Data Analytics Data Science NBA NBA Finals Sports Statistics

Game 2 of CLE vs GSW Breakdown

As usual, here is the post-game breakdown of Game 2 of the NBA Finals between Cleveland and Golden State. Using my live-tracking app to track the relevant factors (as explained in previous posts) here are the live-captured time series: Computing the correlations between each time series above and the Golden State Warriors point difference, we […]

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Basketball Data Analytics Data Science Mathematics NBA NBA Finals Statistics

Game 1 of CLE vs GSW Breakdown

Using my live tracking app combined with the relevant factors based on this previous work, here is my breakdown of what contributed to the Warriors win in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.  First, here is the time series graph of several predictor variables:  Breaking this down a bit further, we have:  Computing the correlations, […]

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Basketball Data Analytics Data Science Mathematics NBA NBA Finals NBA Playoffs Sports Statistics

Breakdown of Game 7 between OKC and GSW

Here is the collection of time series of relevant predictor variables captured live during Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals between The Oklahoma City Thunder and The Golden State Warriors: Another video animation: https://twitter.com/dr_ikjyotsinghk/status/737694089437716480 Many commentators are making a point to mention how many three point shots The Warriors made, suggesting that that was […]