Basketball Stats Explained - From Basic to Advanced

Basketball has come a long way since James Naismith invented the game in 1891 with a simple peach basket and a soccer ball and a rambunctious group of students confined indoors. Over the decades, legends like John Wooden, Phil Jackson, and Pat Summitt have transformed the sport, emphasizing not just skill mastery and strategy, but the critical importance of detailed statistics to chart growth and identify opportunities. Today, SportsVisio takes this evolution a step further by revolutionizing basketball analytics with the use of AI and Computer Vision. By providing cutting-edge tools and insights, SportsVisio empowers players, coaches, and parents to delve deeper into the game’s intricacies, enhancing both performance and strategy.

Open any box score and you get a wall of letters. FG, 3P, AST, TO, +/-, TS%. To a lot of coaches and parents, it looks like a different language.

It isn't. Every number on that sheet answers a simple question: who helped the team win, and how. Once you know what each column is measuring, you can look at a stat line and actually see the game inside it.

This guide walks through every stat you'll find in a basketball box score, from the basic counting numbers up to the advanced metrics NBA front offices live by. We'll keep the definitions plain, show you the formula where it matters, and use quick examples so the math sticks.

How to read a basketball box score

A box score is a snapshot. Each row is a player, each column is one thing they did. Read it left to right and it tells a story: how many shots a player took, how many fell, how often they got to the line, and what they did when they didn't have the ball.

There are three families of stats:

• Counting stats — raw totals. Points, rebounds, assists, steals. The "what happened" numbers.
• Shooting and efficiency stats — percentages that show how well a player scored, not just how much.
• Advanced stats — formulas that blend the box score into a single measure of impact, so you can compare a high-volume scorer to a glue guy fairly.

Start with the counting stats, then layer in efficiency, then advanced. That order is how you go from "she scored 20" to "she scored 20 efficiently and didn't turn it over, which is why we won."

The basic counting stats

These are the totals you see first. They're the foundation for everything else.

Points (Pts) — total points scored. The headline number, but on its own it hides how hard those points were to get.

Field goal attempts (FGA) and field goals made (FG) — every shot from the floor, both attempts and makes. Split into two- and three-pointers below.

2-point attempts (2PA) / 2-point makes (2P) — shots taken and made inside the three-point line.

3-point attempts (3PA) / 3-point makes (3P) — shots taken and made from beyond the arc. Worth one more point each, which is why efficiency stats treat them differently.

Free throw attempts (FTA) / free throws made (FT) — unguarded shots awarded after a foul. Getting to the line is one of the most reliable ways to score, so volume here matters as much as accuracy.

Assists (Ast) — a pass that leads directly to a made basket. Measures playmaking and ball movement.

Offensive rebounds (OReb) — a rebound of your own team's missed shot. Each one is a fresh possession and a second chance to score.

Defensive rebounds (DReb) — a rebound of the opponent's miss. Ends their possession and starts yours.

Turnovers (TO) — losing the ball before a shot goes up, by a bad pass, a steal, or a violation. A possession thrown away.

Steals (Stl) — taking the ball from the offense without a shot attempt. A turnover you forced.

Blocks (Blk) — deflecting an opponent's shot attempt. Erases a scoring chance.

Personal fouls (PF) — illegal contact charged to a player. Pile up enough and the player sits.

Minutes (Min) — time on the floor. The denominator for almost every rate stat that follows.

Shooting and efficiency stats

Counting stats tell you volume. Efficiency stats tell you whether that volume was any good. This is where most people stop reading too early, and it's where games are actually won.

Field goal percentage (FG%) — makes divided by attempts from the floor.

FG% = FG ÷ FGA

A player who goes 8 for 15 shot 53.3%. Useful, but it treats a three-pointer and a layup as equal. They aren't.

Three-point percentage (3P%) and two-point percentage (2P%) — the same math, split by shot type. A 35% three-point shooter and a 50% two-point shooter can be scoring at the same rate per shot, because the three is worth more.

Effective field goal percentage (eFG%) — FG% adjusted for the fact that a made three is worth 1.5 times a made two.

eFG% = (FG + 0.5 × 3P) ÷ FGA

Here's why it matters. Two players each go 10 for 20.

• Player A makes ten twos: 20 points. eFG% = (10 + 0.5 × 0) ÷ 20 = 50%.
• Player B makes four twos and six threes: 26 points. eFG% = (10 + 0.5 × 6) ÷ 20 = 65%.

Same FG%, very different scoring. eFG% catches it.

Free throw percentage (FT%) — free throws made divided by attempted. The purest shooting stat, and the one that decides close games at the line.

True shooting percentage (TS%) — the most complete scoring efficiency stat. It folds twos, threes, and free throws into one number.

TS% = Pts ÷ (2 × (FGA + 0.44 × FTA))

The 0.44 estimates how many possessions free throws actually cost (most trips are two shots, but and-ones and technicals skew it). Example: a player scores 25 points on 18 field goal attempts and 6 free throw attempts.

TS% = 25 ÷ (2 × (18 + 0.44 × 6)) = 25 ÷ 41.28 = 60.6%

A TS% around 55% is solid, 60%+ is excellent, and anything near 50% means a player is working hard for points they aren't cashing in efficiently.

Possession and team-context stats

Basketball is a game of possessions. These stats put individual numbers in the context of how many chances the team actually had.

Possessions — an estimate of how many times a team had the ball.

Possessions ≈ FGA + 0.44 × FTA + TO − OReb

Points per possession (and pace) — points scored divided by possessions used. This is the truest measure of offensive output, because it strips out whether a team plays fast or slow. Two points per possession is elite; a full game usually lands around one point per possession at the team level.

Turnover percentage (TOV%) — how often a player or team coughs up the ball per possession used, rather than as a raw count.

TOV% = TO ÷ (FGA + 0.44 × FTA + TO)

Assist percentage (AST%) — the share of a team's made baskets a player set up while on the floor. Separates a true playmaker from someone who just happens to rack up assists in heavy minutes.

Rebound percentage (OReb% / DReb%) — the share of available rebounds a player grabbed while on the floor, instead of the raw total. A 7-rebound game in 18 minutes is more impressive than 9 rebounds in 38, and rebound percentage shows that.

Plus-minus (+/-) — the team's point differential while a player is on the floor. If your team outscores the opponent by 8 in a player's minutes, they're a +8. It's noisy in a single game but tells you a lot over a season, and it's the stat that most often surprises people, because the player who fills the box score isn't always the one the team wins with.

Advanced and pro-level metrics

These are the single-number metrics front offices use to compare players across roles and eras. You don't need to calculate them by hand; you need to know what they're claiming.

Player Impact Estimate (PIE) — a player's share of all the positive things that happened in a game across both teams. Above 10% means a player carried more than an average load.

Player Efficiency Rating (PER) — packs a player's per-minute production into one number, scaled so the league average is always 15. Great for offense, weaker on defense.

Box Plus-Minus (BPM) — estimates the points per 100 possessions a player adds above league average, using only box-score stats. Zero is average, +5 is an All-Star level.

Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) — takes BPM and stretches it across a full season to answer one question: how much more is this player worth than a freely available bench replacement?

Adjusted Plus-Minus (APM) — like plus-minus, but it uses regression to strip out the influence of teammates and opponents, isolating one player's true effect.

True Shooting and the rest — TS% (above) belongs in any advanced toolkit, and you'll also see defensive-specific ratings, player-similarity scores, and forecasting models. They all chase the same goal: turn a messy box score into one fair comparison.

Which stats actually matter for you

You don't need all of them. What to watch depends on who you are.

Youth and high school coaches: start with turnovers, eFG%, free throw rate, and rebounding margin. These are the levers you can actually coach, and they decide tight games far more than raw points.

Parents: look past points. Assists, steals, plus-minus, and minutes tell you whether a player is helping the team win, which is what college coaches and selectors actually evaluate.

Players: track your own efficiency, not just your scoring. A jump in TS% and a drop in turnovers is the development story that gets you more minutes.

Whichever you are, the hard part isn't knowing which stats matter. It's getting them, game after game, without a stat crew. That's the part SportsVisio handles. Book a demo and see your own team's numbers come back automatically.

How SportsVisio tracks every stat above, automatically

Here's the catch with everything in this guide: someone has to record it. For most teams that means a parent with a clipboard counting tally marks, or a coach trying to remember the game well enough to fill in a sheet afterward. The advanced stats? Out of reach for almost everyone below the pro level, because nobody has time to run the formulas.

SportsVisio changes the math. You record the game on any device, and AI breaks down the footage into a full stat line. No stat crew, no manual entry.

For basketball (5v5 and 3x3), every recording gives you:

• The full box score — points, made and missed shots, two- and three-point splits, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, turnovers, and personal fouls
• Game flow — how the score and momentum moved across the game
• Individual highlight reels — video clips tied to each stat, so you can watch the play behind the number

Step up to Coach Mode and you also get the advanced layer this guide covers:

• Shot charts — every attempt mapped on the floor, so efficiency stops being abstract
• Advanced box score — the efficiency and impact metrics, calculated for you
• AI Assistant Coach — the breakdown turned into what to actually work on next

Everything you just learned to read by hand, delivered after every game without the clipboard.

Record the game. We do the rest.

See it on your own film. Book a demo → and we'll walk you through your team's box score, shot charts, and highlights live.

Frequently asked questions

What is +/- in basketball stats?
Plus-minus is the team's point differential while a player is on the floor. If the team outscores the opponent by six during a player's minutes, that player is a +6. It captures impact that doesn't show up in points, rebounds, or assists.

How do you read a basketball box score?
Read it in three passes. First the counting stats (points, rebounds, assists) for what happened. Then the shooting percentages (FG%, eFG%, TS%) for how efficiently it happened. Then the advanced numbers (plus-minus, PIE) for overall impact. Volume first, then efficiency, then impact.

What's the difference between FG% and eFG%?
Field goal percentage treats every make the same. Effective field goal percentage gives extra weight to three-pointers, since they're worth more. Two players can shoot the same FG% while one scores far more, and eFG% is the stat that catches it.

What is a good true shooting percentage?
Around 55% is solid, 60% and up is excellent, and near 50% means a player is scoring inefficiently. TS% is the best single measure of scoring efficiency because it accounts for twos, threes, and free throws together.

What are advanced basketball stats?
Metrics that blend the box score into one number to compare players fairly across roles, such as PER, Box Plus-Minus, VORP, and True Shooting. They answer "how much did this player actually help the team win," not just "how much did they score." SportsVisio's Coach Mode calculates the advanced box score and shot charts for you from a single recording.

Want these stats for your own team without a clipboard? SportsVisio turns one game recording into a full box score, shot charts, and highlights. Book a demo →

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Article refreshed June 2026