Stat-sheet, stuffed

Happy Thursday! We’re still trying to process what Victor Wembanyama did to the NBA box score last night, erupting for 52 points, 24 rebounds and 8 blocks in the Spurs’ win over Dallas. We’ll look at just how rare that all-around performance was — and how close it came to becoming the greatest statistical game in league history — below. Plus, Jacksonville gets a chance to flex its league-best stats on Thursday Night Football (against a Ravens team in a quarterback emergency), and two of the NBA’s oldest teams meet with Miami facing Golden State. (Millennials, rejoice!) Here’s what we’re watching today:

The Main Events

All listed times are Eastern. 🚨= Elimination game

Football:
🏈 Thursday Night Football: Jaguars (83%) at Ravens (17%) - 8:15 p.m. (Prime Video)
🏈 CFB: UTSA (70%) at FAU (30%) - 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)
🏈 CFB: JMU (85%) at Southern Miss (15%) - 8 p.m. (ESPN2)
🏈🏆 Super Bowl check-in: 49ers 17% to win the NFL title
🏈🏆 College Football Playoff check-in: Georgia 24% to win the national title 

NBA:
🏀 Magic (49%) at Suns (51%) - 9 p.m.
🏀 Heat (29%) at Warriors (71%) - 10 p.m. (NBA TV) - The NBA’s oldest + T-3rd oldest teams, lol.
🏀🏆 NBA title check-in: Spurs 24% to win

NHL:
🏒 Hurricanes (62%) at Islanders (38%) - 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
🏒 Flyers (41%) at Rangers (59%) - 7 p.m.
🏒 Bruins (50%) at Penguins (50%) - 7 p.m. (ESPN+) - All we can say is that a team wearing black and gold will win.
🏒🏆 Stanley Cup check-in: Hurricanes 12% to win

Soccer:
⚽ Europa League: Marseille (11%) at Bayer Leverkusen (75%) - 3 p.m. (Paramount+)
⚽ Europa League: Juventus (51%) at AZ Alkmaar (25%) - 3 p.m. (Paramount+)
⚽🏆 Champions League check-in: FC Barcelona 23% to win
⚽🏆 Premier League title check-in: Arsenal FC 72% to win
⚽🏆 Europa League check-in: SL Benfica 22% to win
⚽🏆 MLS title check-in: Nashville SC 22% to win MLS Cup (playoffs start Wednesday, 11/19)
⚽🏆 NWSL title check-in: San Diego Wave FC 29% to win (playoffs start Friday, 11/6)

College Basketball:
🏀 Wake Forest (7%) at #24 Vanderbilt (93%) - 6 p.m. (ESPN2)
🏀 Jacksonville at #1 Florida - 8 p.m. (SECN+)
🏀 Coastal Carolina (1%) at #2 Duke (99%) - 8 p.m. (ACCN)
🏀🏆 March Madness check-in: Duke 18% to win the men’s national title

Tennis:
🎾 Rolex Paris Masters, Round of 16 - Carlos Alcaraz 53% to win

Golf:
⛳ PGA Tour: World Wide Technology Championship (Cabo San Lucas, Mexico), Round 1 - 8:30 a.m. (Golf Channel) - Benjamin James 6% to win

The Wemby game

Just take a single look at Victor Wembanyama’s 7-foot-4 (or taller?) frame and remarkably versatile skill-set, and it’s clear the NBA box-score is in danger anytime he takes the court.

That was certainly true overnight Wednesday, when Wemby put together what was genuinely one of the most ridiculous statistical performances in NBA history: 52 points, 24 rebounds and 8 blocks — only the seventh 50/20/5 game in NBA history, the second not done by Wilt Chamberlain (joining Bob McAdoo), and the second to specifically clear those particular thresholds. (Wilt did it with 55/29/17 on Feb. 5, 1961.)

(Oh, and by the way, Wemby made the decisive free throw with 24.2 seconds left, too, as San Antonio beat Dallas 112-111 for its sixth consecutive victory.)

This was a historic night for Wemby in terms of overall, holistic performance if we look at Game Score — a measure that attempts to distill all of a player’s box-score contributions into a single number. A Game Score of 35+ is pretty high for an entire game; only 11 players have done it so far this season, and it happened 106 times all of last season in a league where 582 players logged a total of 26,651 appearances. And yet, Wemby already had a Game Score of 35.6 at halftime last night — with 29 points, 15 rebounds, 5 blocks, 2 assists and 2 steals:

If he’d continued at that pace (or close to it) over the rest of the game, he’d have challenged — if not outright shattered — Michael Jordan’s 64.6 Game Score from March 28, 1990, the highest single-game mark in NBA history. As it was, Wemby finished with a Game Score of 55.2, which checks in at 14th-best on the all-time list:

What’s interesting is that, when you break down the components of Game Score, Wemby made the list with comparatively few “negative” categories (like missed shots, turnovers and fouls) while also getting a comparatively high contribution from non-scoring categories. In fact, out of the Top 20 on our list above, Wemby’s night ranked 20th in contributions from points alone, but he ranked third-highest on the list in contributions from categories aside from points. Truly, the entire stat-sheet — not just the scoring column — got stuffed.

And there’s a decent chance we look back on this game as a signature moment in Wemby’s MVP push. According to the prediction markets, Wembanyama is in a de facto dead-heat with Los Angeles’ Luka Dončić for the lead in the MVP odds — but many more games like this, and Wemby will be tough to beat.

Is this the NFL’s best team?

The Jacksonville Jaguars on a Thursday Night used to be the trash-heap of NFL scheduling, a place where you tossed teams a perfunctory prime-time game for the sake of saying you did (back when every team was guaranteed at least one of those per year). But tonight’s Jags-Ravens matchup could feature the best team in the NFL, hailing from Jacksonville. (Not so much Baltimore, sadly, as they deal with Lamar Jackson’s latest injury.) According to Pro-Football-Reference’s Simple Rating System (SRS), which is just schedule-adjusted PPG margin, Jacksonville is easily the No. 1 team in the league with a rating of +11.4 — meaning they’ve played like they would beat an average team by 11.4 points at a neutral field. No other team team this season is rated higher than the Bears at +7.7:

What else we’re reading

Smart, short reads we liked while building today’s odds.

🏀 “Victor Wembanyama paints his masterpiece” by Tyler Lauletta
🏈 “Advanced Bob Ross Stats and the Joy of Throwing the Football” by Ray Carpenter
🎨 (Note: With apologies to Ray, the best advanced Bob Ross stats came from our own Walt Hickey.)
🏀 “Joel Embiid Is Anchoring the Sixers’ Defense Again” by Beckett Sanderson
⛳ “Is Bunker Practice Even Worth Your Time?” by Tour Swings Tommy

Next on deck…

Friday (11/6)
🏈 CFB: TCU at #24 Arizona
🏀 NBA: 76ers at Cavaliers
🏒 NHL: Sharks at Wild
⚽ NWSL Quarterfinal: #7 Utah at #2 San Diego
🏀 CBB: #4 UConn vs. #16 Michigan
🎾 Tennis: Rolex Paris Masters, Quarterfinals
⛳ Golf: World Wide Technology Championship (Cabo San Lucas, Mexico), Round 2

Saturday (11/7)
🏈 CFB: #1 Miami at #11 Notre Dame
🏈 CFB: #2 Georgia at #10 Ole Miss
🏈 CFB: #9 BYU at #3 Utah
🏈 CFB: #5 Alabama at #14 LSU
🏀 NBA: Knicks at Cavaliers
🏒 NHL: Canadiens at Maple Leafs
⚽ NWSL Quarterfinal: Angel City FC at Kansas City Current
⚽ Premier League: Manchester City at Nottingham Forest
🏀 CBB: NM State at #15 Gonzaga
🎾 Tennis: Rolex Paris Masters, Semifinals
🥊 UFC Fight Night: Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Johnny Walker
⛳ Golf: World Wide Technology Championship (Cabo San Lucas, Mexico), Round 3

Sunday (11/8)
🏈 NFL: Packers at Patriots
🏈 NFL: Raiders at 49ers
🏈 NFL: Bengals at Falcons
🏈 Sunday Night Football: Buccaneers at Bears
🏀 NBA: Lakers at Pistons
🏒 NHL: Panthers at Bruins
⚽ NWSL Quarterfinal: Seattle Reign at NJ/NY Gotham FC 🚨
⚽ NWSL Quarterfinal: Portland Thorns at Washington Spirit 🚨
⚽ Premier League: Manchester United vs. Aston Villa
🏀 CBB: Arkansas at #9 Virginia
🎾 Tennis: Rolex Paris Masters, Finals 🚨
⛳ Golf: World Wide Technology Championship (Cabo San Lucas, Mexico), Final Round
🏁 NASCAR: Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami 🚨
🏁 F1: São Paulo Grand Prix