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The 2014 season and double-digit scoring players on teams

We look at the teams in the WNBA with players scoring in double digits. Which team was the most prolific in double-digit scorers? Which team had the most double-digit scorers in a game?

By James Bowman
Kevin C. Cox

This week I received a letter from Alexandre DeCarvalho of Brazil, who sent me some interesting information about the number of times players scored in double digits over the 2014 regular season. DeCarvalho's list counts a player multiple times if that player scores in double digits multiple times.

I found it so interesting that I thought I'd expand on it.  If we just count hitting double digits as an accomplishment, then the Phoenix Mercury is the WNBA's leader in double digits.  I expanded this to counting the total number of games where WNBA players hit at least 20 points, and the # of games where they hit at least 30. ( As for the two 40 games from Minnesota, guess who had those?)

Total Number of Players Scoring a Given Number of Points
at least 10 pts at least 20 pts at least 30 pts at least 40 pts
ATL 126 27 2 0
CHI 116 22 3 0
CON 121 18 1 0
IND 116 13 1 0
NYL 96 23 2 0
WAS 114 8 0 0
LAS 107 32 4 0
MIN 117 35 12 2
PHO 137 23 1 0
SAS 119 13 2 0
SEA 95 17 1 0
TUL 120 38 8 0


It looks like the Minnesota Lynx are the leaders in 30 point games, and we have a good inkling why.  Surprisingly enough, the Tulsa Shock have eight games where a player has hit 30 games.

The above graph just gives us a total count of times a player hit double digits.  But let's look at the actual number of players hitting double digits over a given game.

Total Number of Players in Double Digits
0 players 1 player 2 players 3 players 4 players 5 players 6 players 7 players
ATL 0 1 2 10 14 7 0 0 34
CHI 0 0 6 16 5 6 1 0 34
CON 0 0 2 16 11 5 0 0 34
IND 0 0 5 13 13 3 0 0 34
NYL 0 2 14 7 10 1 0 0 34
WAS 0 2 4 14 9 4 1 0 34
LAS 0 0 8 15 9 2 0 0 34
MIN 0 1 4 13 13 1 2 0 34
PHO 0 0 1 6 18 9 0 0 34
SAS 0 1 5 14 6 6 2 0 34
SEA 0 6 4 16 7 1 0 0 34
TUL 0 0 5 11 15 2 0 1 34



As you can see, there isn't a game this season where no player on a team hit double digits.  Given the number of points scored in a WNBA game, it's hard to distribute points in such a way where no player gets a least 10 points.  However, there was one game this year where seven players hit double digits!  Can you guess which team that was?  The answer is at this link!  What's surprising is that the team that had seven players in double digits lost the game!

We've counted the number of players per game that have hit double digits.  Let's do a similar count for the 20 point games.

Total Number of Players Scoring >= 20 points
0 players 1 player 2 players 3 players
ATL 13 16 4 1 34
CHI 14 18 2 0 34
CON 20 10 4 0 34
IND 22 11 1 0 34
NYL 14 17 3 0 34
WAS 26 8 0 0 34
LAS 10 16 8 0 34
MIN 7 19 8 0 34
PHO 14 17 3 0 34
SAS 23 9 2 0 34
SEA 19 13 2 0 34
TUL 4 23 6 1 34



Games where two members on a team score 20 points are not uncommon.  However two teams have had three players score 20 points in a game this season.  Can you guess the two teams?  The answers can be found here, and here!  (Hint:  one of these two games was a double-overtime game.)

Update:  Thanks to Mike Peden at fullcourt.com for pointing out an error which has been fixed.

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