Sports Reference Blog

Check Out the Play Index!

Posted by Neil on June 13, 2012

With the Finals getting underway, it's time for a reminder to check out the Basketball-Reference Play Index. In case you don't already know about the PI, it's a set of research tools that allow you to create customizable queries on our database, save the results, and share them with others. With the PI, you can:

  • Use the Player Season Finder to search through all NBA, ABA, & BAA players' regular season and playoff statistics for performances that match your criteria.
  • Use the Player Game Finder to search through NBA players' regular season and playoff game logs (since 1985-86) for games matching your criteria.
  • Use the Head-to-Head Finder to search for games in which two selected players played against each other.
  • Search for player and team consecutive-game streaks that match your criteria using the Streak Finders.
  • Search for team performances that meet your criteria with the Team Season Finder and Team Game Finder.
  • Use the Draft Finder to search through every NBA/BAA draft for picks that match your criteria.
  • Use the Player Comparison Finder to compare the stats of up to four players through (or in) a given season.

Also, take a look at the Play Index Plus for even more data-searching goodness. The PI+ lets you sift through the play-by-play data of every game since 2001, making it possible to look for specific events, lineup data, and shooting stats (including clutch shots and shot breakdowns by distance).

Best of all, these features are 100% free to use! So go ahead, give them a try, and you'll wonder how you ever got along without them.

Related posts:

  1. Find Interleague Records and Head-to-Head Histories Using the Play Index
  2. Subscribe to the Play Index!
  3. Free Play Index Trial & 34 PI Searches You Need to Know
  4. Introducing Play Index+
  5. Cool Play Index Event Finder Tricks

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2012 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Announcement, Basketball-Reference.com, Features, Play Index. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “Check Out the Play Index!”

  1. jj Says: June 14th, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    Is there any plans in the future to expand the play index+? There is so much potential for it. Like a page for each players plus/minus numbers for all categories. Using lineup data to find numbers for 2 or 3 man lineups (IE: Shaq/kobe). Or even better, being able to find stats head to head when they are on the court (Durant vs. LeBron) or stats when players play with a certain teammate (LeBron/Wade).

  2. Neil Says: June 15th, 2012 at 8:35 am

    Yeah, those are all things we're going to think about adding at some point when we have the time.

  3. Trent Says: June 16th, 2012 at 12:36 pm

    Hey Neil, quick suggestion for the Player Comparison Finder. I think it would be much more useful if the results were formatted like the player comparison pages in the ELO Rater. That format provides so much more information in a more digestible form. I have always wanted to be able to select the players to compare in the ELO rater, and while I understand why that doesn't make sense for the ratings, I think it would be a nice feature for the PI. I know you guys are really busy, but I just want to share that idea.