Sports Reference Blog

BBR’s Most Wanted: Line Scores

Posted by Justin Kubatko on May 31, 2013

I am very close to having a complete set of proofed line scores (i.e., scoring by quarter) for the 1950-51 NBA season forward. By "proofed" I mean that I have verified that the line score total equals the team point total. There are almost 55,000 regular season and playoff games in that period, but I only have 21 12 issues that need to be resolved.

First, here are the cases where the line score total does not match the team's point total:

195111100BOS BOS pts  83 (game)  84 (line) Found!
195812270PHW PHW pts 114 (game) 115 (line) Found!
195812270PHW STL pts 108 (game) 105 (line) Found!
196003090DET MNL pts 116 (game) 117 (line) Found!
196011050STL STL pts 119 (game) 120 (line) Found!
196111180STL CIN pts 133 (game) 136 (line) Found!
196203040SYR SYR pts 115 (game) 105 (line) Found!
196301310SYR SYR pts 112 (game) 102 (line)
196403010DET SFW pts 100 (game)  94 (line)
196403170LAL PHI pts  97 (game)  94 (line)
196602160NYK SFW pts 108 (game) 106 (line)

Second, here are the games that are missing line scores:

195011040WSC MNL and WSC
195011110NYK SYR and NYK Found!
195011110WSC BOS and WSC Found!
195011150MNL SYR and MNL
195011220BLB NYK and BLB
195011250WSC SYR and WSC
195101060WSC FTW and WSC
195102220NYK TRI and NYK
195103290SYR NYK and SYR Found!
196203120LAL NYK and LAL

I have almost exhausted the resources that I have at my disposal, so I would be very grateful if any of you could lend a hand. You can post additions/corrections here or submit them using our feedback form. Please supply documentation to support your claim. Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide.

Related posts:

  1. 1984-85 NBA Box Scores
  2. 1980-81 NBA Box Scores
  3. NBA Box Scores Back to 1964-65
  4. Added Box Scores Back to NBA/ABA Merger
  5. BBR: Advanced Box Scores

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13 Responses to “BBR’s Most Wanted: Line Scores”

  1. Ty Says: May 31st, 2013 at 11:57 am

    I appreciate all the work that you and the Sports Reference staff have been able to do. Do you think it would be possible to have a Play Index feature that tracks team points for and against by the quarter (Similar to PFR)? Thank you.

  2. Tod Maher Says: May 31st, 2013 at 7:24 pm

    The 11/12/1950 Boston Herald says in the story (not the box):
    Boston 28 22 14 14-78
    Washington 25 15 20 17-77

  3. Justin Kubatko Says: June 1st, 2013 at 3:43 pm

    @Tod Maher: Thanks so much. I've crossed that one off the list.

  4. Justin Kubatko Says: June 1st, 2013 at 3:44 pm

    @Ty: Yes, at some point. I would like to get these squared away first.

  5. Mark Growcott Says: June 1st, 2013 at 7:37 pm

    It would also be great when using the Team Game Finder to be able to do queries by Quarter, such as most points in the 1st Qtr, biggest lead after the 1st Qtr, most points/fewest points in an overtime period etc.

    Thanks

  6. Tod Maher Says: June 1st, 2013 at 10:04 pm

    For the 11/11/1951 game, from the Boston Herald box:
    Boston 19 21 21 22-83

  7. Justin Kubatko Says: June 2nd, 2013 at 8:55 am

    @Tod Maher: Thanks again.

  8. Levi Says: June 5th, 2013 at 4:49 pm

    196203040SYR: Syracuse: 28 20 37 30 (source)

    196011050STL: St Louis: 33 31 32 23 (source)

    196003090DET: Minneapolis: 30 30 31 25 (source)

    195812270PHW: All screwed up:
    St Louis: 18 28 26 30 6
    Philiadelphia: 33 21 23 25 12 (source)

    I'll check the rest tomorrow

  9. Justin Kubatko Says: June 5th, 2013 at 6:33 pm

    @Levi: Thanks!

  10. Levi Says: June 9th, 2013 at 3:14 pm

    195011110NYK:
    1 2 3 4 OT
    Knicks 18 12 19 16 9
    Nationals 14 14 19 18 7
    (from the text of the article)

    195103290SYR

  11. Justin Kubatko Says: June 11th, 2013 at 1:36 pm

    @Levi: Thanks again. Were you able to find any more?

  12. Levi Says: June 11th, 2013 at 2:16 pm

    Nope, not using the databases that I have access to. On most of the games missing line scores, I could find half scores if that's useful. On the one I could find, I had to construct my own from the text of the article. On the disagreement ones, I got the same errors that you have with little in the way of story text to trace where the error lies.

  13. Justin Kubatko Says: June 11th, 2013 at 2:32 pm

    @Levi: I have the scoring by half for most of those games, so that won't help. Thanks so much for your assistance. I'm afraid some of these might be impossible to sort out.