Date of Award

2016

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Awarded

Master of Science (MS)

Program

Statistics

Department

Statistics

College

Science and Mathematics

Faculty Advisor

Magel, Rhonda

Description

A stratified random sample of 144 NBA basketball games was taken over a three-year period, between 2008 and 2011. Models were developed to predict point spread and to estimate the probability of a specific team winning based on various in-game statistics. Statistics significant in the model were field-goal shooting percentage, three-point shooting percentage, free-throw shooting percentage, offensive rebounds, assists, turnovers, and free-throws attempted. Models were verified using exact in-game statistics for a random sample of 50 NBA games taken during the 2011-2012 season with 88-94% accuracy. Three methods were used to estimate in-game statistics of future games so that the models could be used to predict a winner in games played by Team A and Team B. Models using these methods had accuracies of approximately 62%. Seasonal averages for these in-game statistics were used in the model developed to predict the winner of each game for the 2013-2016 NBA Championships.

Rights

NDSU Policy 190.6.2

Rights Link

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

Handle Identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/10365/28084

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