NBA
NBA Finals 2026 Preview: The Two Numbers That Will Decide the Series
The 2026 NBA Finals tip off Thursday with two teams the betting markets have placed inside two points of each…
SportsHighLight · Author
Marcus Whitfield
Marcus Whitfield is the SportsHighLight NFL beat lead and Methods desk lead. He has been writing about football analytics for the better part of a decade and signs off on any piece that uses an advanced metric like EPA, CPOE, success rate, or pressure-adjusted EPA. Covers route concepts, coverage charts, and the gap between what a play looked like and what it actually did.
NBA
What History Says About NBA Finals Game 1: Why the Opener Doesnt Predict the Series
NBA Finals Game 1 winners take the series only ~60% of the time, not the 80-90% the broadcast narrative implies. Heres what the 76-series...
Methods
The Usage-Rate Mirage: When Having the Ball Becomes the Alibi
Usage rate is not a halo. Sometimes it explains the burden. Sometimes it hides the mess.
WNBA
The WNBA Three-Point Revolution: Where the League Is Headed
The WNBA's three-point revolution — what's driving it, what the data shows about its acceleration, where the league is still constrained, and how to...
NBA
The Iverson Line: Player Stats That Outlive the Box Score
A guide to reading player stats past the box score: efficiency, role, opponent quality, on/off splits, and the all-in-ones — using a 2005 Iverson...
WNBA
Reading the WNBA Honestly: The Analytics Conversation This League Deserves
The WNBA read with the same analytical vocabulary we apply to the men's league — what the data shows about the best players, and...
Methods
The Garbage-Time Tax: Why Net Rating Needs a Red Pen
Net rating looks clean until the end of the bench starts turning a 14-point game into a fake referendum.
College Football
SP+ Explained: Bill Connelly’s Index and Reading Saturday Chaos Through Math
SP+ — what it is, where it came from, what it does well, where it breaks, and how to read it without falling for...
NBA
Pace and Space: How Possession Rates Quietly Rewired Everything We Measure in the NBA
The pace-and-space era, the metrics it forced into existence, the metrics it broke, and how to read a 2026 box score without 1996 instincts.
NFL
EPA Explained: How Expected Points Added Became the Lingua Franca of NFL Analytics
Expected Points Added (EPA), where it came from, how it works, where it breaks, and how to use it without becoming the worst guy...