http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=6761

PFs is a better gauge, as FT amounts would be impacted by being in the penalty.

Your impressions were right -- Boston had the 3rd-most fouls committed per possession, while the Lakers had the 2nd-fewest.

I'm currently trying to whip up a "Fouls per possession" stat over all 82 regular season game, and if I'm doing it right (this is where I'm asking for your help), it seems that adjusted for pace, my impressions match reality, as Boston and Utah are consistently at the top of the most fouling-est teams in the league.

Instead of blaming the refs for calling the fouls (I know, you aren't doing this, but a LOT of Celtics fans are) shouldn't the Celtics take some responsibility for actually fouling at a higher rate, regardless of who they play?

If I've done my "fouls per possession" calculation correctly, the real anomaly would be that the Celtics weren't called for more fouls in 2008, relative to the Lakers less fouling ways.

Anyway, that's not really at issue here. All I'm saying is that when you look at SPM/DPA and the ORtg/%Poss/DRtg framework, LeBron's performance vs. Boston was at best equal to Kobe's, and at worst somewhat inferior. Does this mean Kobe is a better player than LeBron? No. There's mounds of evidence beyond these small samples to suggest that James' contribution to winning is, on average, fairly significantly better than Bryant's. But in May/June 2010, against a common opponent in the Boston Celtics, Kobe's contribution was at least equal to LeBron's, if not slightly better.

I saw the entire series and remember how Andy got benched for the Jamison/Shaq duo. Shaq can't rotate, and KG had his way with Antawn.If you play on some stud defensive team you have an advantage in DRtg. That is its flaws, and I merely pointed that only over a large enough span would I definitively use it with confidence (say half a season or so). You know it is not easy to analyze defense.

So tell me how does 82games (basketball-reference is amazing as well, don't worry) analyze players? Net PER (Game score difference is related to that for example), and some kind of +/- ? That's pretty much my comparison isn't it? SPM and game score difference at key positions.