GlossaryBasketball (NBA)
Plus/minus (+/−)
Plus/minus is how many points a team outscored the opponent by while a given player was on the court — +12 means the team was 12 points better with them playing.
It's a quick team-impact measure that captures contributions a box score misses (defence, spacing, screens). It's noisy over a single game but meaningful over a season. A negative figure means the team was outscored during that player's minutes.
See it in the numbers
Open the spreadsheet and watch this appear in live scores and standings — disguised as work.
Related terms
How to read an NBA box score
An NBA box score lists each player's key totals — points (PTS), rebounds (REB), assists (AST), plus minutes and shooting — so you can see who did what without watching.
The NBA play-in tournament
The play-in is a mini-tournament for the 7th–10th seeds in each conference that decides the final two playoff spots.
How to read a league table
A league table ranks teams by points; the columns to its right show how those points were earned — games played, wins, draws, losses, goals for and against, and goal difference.
How points work (3-1-0)
In most football leagues a win is worth 3 points, a draw 1 and a loss 0; the team with the most points at the end of the season wins the title.