Sure ... if you don't understand it.
First off +/- is a team stat or more accurately a 5-man unit stat.
It isn't a great single game or single player stat, though sometimes it does reveal who was the weak link. In the aggregate and over enough games (and seasons) it does provide useful info on individual players.
In this game, Burks -11 reflects the fact that our core starters (note that Randle and Mitch had a similar +/-) were bested by BKY's; and since we only lost by 2, our bench strongly outplayed theirs. Gee, funny how the silly stat reflects what happened in the game.
I tend to think of +/- as partially underscoring who was/wasn't playing D. But more importantly, players who make underappreciated contributions such as screen setting, hockey assists, deflecting the ball and making other hustle plays, who usually are rewarded by +/-, since such non-boxscore stats impact winning.
For years on GS, Iguodala has been the king of no-stat, high +/- games.
Where his conventional counting stats are often negligible but his contributions to outscoring the other team is significant. Of course it helps to have all-star teammates. As +/- remains fundamentally a unit stat, from which individual contribution to winning can be parsed.
Grimes -12 in 3 mins is unfortunate, but he came in and BKY went on a 10-0 run, Of course Grimes isn't responsible for that early 3Q Nets run, but if I were the Knix coaching staff, I'd be looking at that stretch and the unit we had and the mistakes we made. Cause that was a key part of the L. The first bucket being KD going right at Grimey and shooting an easy 6' over him. Followed by Randle jacking a heavily contested 20' over Durant. Then a very casual turnover/pass from Burks. Then Fournier dribbling nowhere and throwing a poor pass to Mitch, stolen by BKY.
Gee, might be good to have a PG out there ...
Then Mitch stood by while harden rammed down an O-board.
So not surprising that Burks, Randle and Mitch had circa -10's for the game. All culprits in the BKY 3Q 10-0 run.
Or if that isn't helpful just go with your gut that the thing you don't understand is stupid, ignorance is strength, and you're smarter than the rest.
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