A useful NBA box-score check starts with shooting value, opportunities and context. Points and field-goal percentage are a beginning, but neither tells you by itself how efficiently a team played or why it won.

You do not need a spreadsheet open during dinner. A couple of small calculations can keep a loud conclusion from outrunning the evidence.

First, ask what the made baskets were worth

Consider two imaginary teams, each taking 80 shots. Team A makes 40, including 10 three-pointers. Team B makes 38, including 16 threes.

Team A shoots 50 percent. Team B shoots 47.5 percent. Yet A scores 90 points on those field goals, while B scores 92. The team with the lower conventional shooting percentage produces more points from the same number of attempts.

This is why the Jr. NBA’s statistics primer introduces effective field-goal percentage: it accounts for the additional value of a made three-pointer.

The calculation is made field goals plus half the made threes, divided by attempts. For our examples, A finishes at 56.25 percent effective shooting; B finishes at 57.5 percent. The arithmetic does not declare B a better team. It answers the narrower question of which set of field-goal attempts generated more scoring value.

Then put the missing scoring back in

Those examples exclude free throws. If A also makes 20 free throws and B makes eight, the totals become 110 and 100. The effective shooting comparison remains correct, but it no longer explains the final result on its own.

That is the habit to build: ask what a number includes and what it leaves out. A measure can be accurate and incomplete at the same time.

Do the same with turnovers and offensive rebounds. A team that loses opportunities before shooting has a different problem from one that creates shots but misses them. An offensive rebound can extend an opportunity. The final shooting percentage cannot tell those stories by itself.

Compare rates when the pace changes

The Jr. NBA primer also explains why offensive and defensive ratings use scoring per 100 possessions. More opportunities can produce a larger point total without a better rate of success.

Here is another deliberately simplified example: 110 points in 100 possessions is 110 per 100. Scoring 115 in 110 possessions works out to about 104.5 per 100. The larger raw total belongs to the less efficient offense in this example.

Use a trusted provider’s possession-based figures rather than assuming shot attempts equal possessions. And do not compare figures from different providers without checking their definitions. The NBA statistics glossary is a useful reference for the labels on its own tables.

Keep one game in proportion

A single-night number describes that night. It cannot settle whether a player has permanently improved as a shooter, whether a lineup will keep working or whether an offense has solved its toughest matchup.

Separate the observation from the forecast. “They made more valuable shots tonight” is defensible when the numbers support it. “They will shoot this way all season” requires much more evidence.

Also leave room for the possessions you watched. Was a shot rushed? Did a good pass arrive late? Was an open attempt produced repeatedly, or did a difficult jumper rescue an otherwise broken possession?

For fans following the game through Seattle Hoops Insider, the payoff is a better conversation. Start with the score, check the math, then return to the basketball. Our guide to following screens and cuts can help connect a number to the action that created it. The numbers should sharpen the question, not end it.