The Suns topped the Spurs in points, blocks, and rebounds in their preseason opener on Monday night, but there is one other stat to keep an eye on as the season unfolds.
“We have a high-five stat,” Head Coach Earl Watson said following the 91-86 victory. “I’m being honest with you. This is true. So we want to keep track of how many high-fives we get per game to each other.”
Although this might make basketball analytic experts scoff, there is actually some science behind the theory.
Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley, in 2015 took one game of every NBA team at the start of the year and coded all of the fist bumps, embraces and high fives.