PER NFL COMMUNICATIONS:

2015 NFL PLAYOFF SCENARIOS FOR WEEK 16

AFC

CLINCHED: New England – AFC East and a first-round bye

Cincinnati – playoff berth

• NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (at New York Jets, Sunday) 

   

  New England clinches home-field advantage throughout AFC playoffs with:

  1. NE win OR
  2. NE tie + CIN loss or tie

  CINCINNATI BENGALS (at Denver, Monday)

  Cincinnati clinches AFC North division with:

  1. CIN win or tie OR 
  2. PIT loss or tie

  Cincinnati clinches a first-round bye with:

  1. CIN win or tie

  DENVER BRONCOS (vs. Cincinnati, Monday)

  Denver clinches AFC West division with:

  1. DEN win + KC loss or tie OR
  2. DEN tie + KC loss

   

  Denver clinches a playoff spot with:

  1. DEN win + NYJ loss or tie  OR 
  2. DEN win + PIT loss or tie OR 
  3. DEN tie + NYJ loss OR
  4. DEN tie + PIT loss

   

  HOUSTON TEXANS (at Tennessee, Sunday)

  Houston clinches AFC South division with:

  1. HOU win + HOU clinches strength of victory tiebreaker over IND OR
  2. HOU win + IND loss or tie OR
  3. HOU tie + IND loss

   

  KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (vs. Cleveland, Sunday)

  Kansas City clinches a playoff spot with:

  1. KC win + NYJ loss OR
  2. KC win + PIT loss

   

  PITTSBURGH STEELERS (at Baltimore, Sunday)

  Pittsburgh clinches a playoff spot with:

  1. PIT win + NYJ loss?

  NFC

  CLINCHED: Carolina – NFC South and a first-round bye

  Arizona – NFC West

  Green Bay – playoff berth

  Seattle – playoff berth

  CAROLINA PANTHERS (at Atlanta, Sunday)

  Carolina clinches home-field advantage throughout NFC playoffs with:

  1. CAR win or tie OR 
  2. ARI loss or tie?

  ARIZONA CARDINALS (vs. Green Bay, Sunday)

  Arizona clinches a first-round bye with:

  1. ARI win or tie

  GREEN BAY PACKERS (at Arizona, Sunday)

  Green Bay clinches NFC North division with:

  1. GB win + MIN loss or tie OR 
  2. GB tie + MIN loss

   

  MINNESOTA VIKINGS (vs. New York Giants, Sunday night)

  Minnesota clinches a playoff spot with:

  1. MIN win or tie OR 
  2. ATL loss or tie OR
  3. SEA win or tie

  WASHINGTON REDSKINS (at Philadelphia, Saturday)

  Washington clinches NFC East division with:

  1. WAS win OR 
  2. WAS tie + NYG loss

As we work our way back on digitizing older college basketball statistics, we're happy to announce that we now have digitized team and opponent stats for the 1995-96 College Basketball season. This is in addition to the player stats we added a few weeks back.

These sortable tables allow users to easily see that the dominant 1995-96 Kentucky Wildcats led the nation in steals and assists. And that (no shocker here), UNC opponents never took any free throws. Also, let's not forgot about the impact of Keith "The Boss" Closs at CCSU.

The first quarter of the 2015-16 NBA season has been dominated by one team: the Golden State Warriors. At 25-1, they've posted the best start in NBA history, with the longest winning streak to start a season and the most wins by a team through its first 26 games. What's transformed the Warriors from an already great team to, potentially, one of the best ever?

You can point to any number of reasons, but a big one is the rise of their unstoppable small-ball lineup. Though an injury to Harrison Barnes caused them to temporarily shelve the lineup, the Warriors' small-ball group has been one of the major stories of the season and figuring out how to stop it will be the main task of any team hoping to unseat the champs. So let's go inside the NBA's equivalent of the Death Star and witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational lineup.

Read the rest of this entry

We just wanted to quickly note that we've added the ability to search by day to the Basketball Reference Player Game Finder in the Play Index.

With this addition, you can now run searches such as:

• Most Points on Christmas since 1963-64 (Bernard King)
• Most Games Played on Christmas since 1963-64 (Kobe Bryant)
• Most Career Rebounds on April Fool's Day since 1985-86 (Karl Malone)

Now that you know that the Mailman always delivered on April Fool's Day, you can go about the rest of your day.

We hope you enjoy this new addition.

Thanks to the research of Sean Burrill, we're happy to announce that we now have complete box scores for the 1984 NBA Playoffs, and mostly complete box scores for the 1983 NBA Playoffs. Previously, these box scores were mostly restricted to player scoring and shooting statistics.

Additionally, 1984 Playoff games are now searchable in the Play Index. For instance, here's a list of triple-doubles in the 1984 Playoffs and most 3-pointers made by a team in 1984 Playoff games.

1983 Playoff box scores are also updated, but not searchable in the Play Index because we're missing some statistics from these games (please contact us if you are able to fill in any of these gaps):

Game 2, Boston at Atlanta: three-point attempts, offensive rebounding, turnovers, steals

Game 2, Milwaukee at Boston: offensive rebounding

Game 2, Portland at Los Angeles: offensive rebounding

Game 3, Los Angeles at Portland: offensive rebounding

Game 3, San Antonio at Denver: offensive rebounding

Game 3, Los Angeles at San Antonio: offensive rebounding

Game 5, San Antonio at Los Angeles: offensive rebounding, turnovers

Game 6, Los Angeles at San Antonio: offensive rebounding, turnovers