Table 1 Definitions of dependent variables.
Variable Definition
Goals Percentage goals relative to the number of shots made
Action goals Percentage of goals scored during Even action (i.e., playing situation performed by a number of offensive players relative to the ball position, which is equal or lower than that of the defense) relative to the number of shots made in this situation
Centre goals Percentage of goals scored at the centre point of the mid-court line after each goal relative to the number of shots made*
Power-play goals Percentage of goals scored during Power-play action (i.e., playing situation originating following an exclusion foul of a defensive player who has to go out of the court for 20 seconds of clock time) relative to the number of shots made in this situation
5-m goals Percentage of goals at a distance greater than 5 m relative to the number of shots made from that distance
Penalty goals Percentage of goals scored by means of a penalty relative to the number of performed penalty throw
Counterattack goals Percentage of goals scored during Counterattack action (i.e., playing situations where the number of offensive players relative to the ball position is higher than that of the defense) relative to the number of shots made in this situation
Assists Number of passes from one offensive player to another leading directly to a goal score
Offensive fouls Number of losses of the ball due to committing a foul
Steals Number of turnovers in favour of the defense due to anticipation and snatching of the ball
Blocked shots Shots stopped or diverted by the defenders
Won sprints Number of sprints won – possession of the first ball in each quarter – divided by four, i.e., the number of sprints per game
Timeouts Number of timeouts used throughout the game
Exclusions Number of players expelled from the game for 20 seconds for breaking the rules
Goalkeeper-blocked shots Percentage of shots stopped by goalkeeper relative to the number of shots made by the opponent players
Goalkeeper-blocked Even shots Percentage of shots stopped by goalkeeper during Even action relative to the number of shots made in this situation by the opponent players
Goalkeeper-blocked centre shots Percentage of shots stopped by goalkeeper made from the centre point of the mid-court line after each goal relative to the number of shots made in this situation by the opponent players
Goalkeeper-blocked Infe-riority shots Percentage of shots stopped by goalkeeper during numerical inferiority (i.e., opponents’ Power-play) relative to the number of shots made in this situation by the opponent players
Goalkeeper-blocked 5-m shots Percentage of shots stopped by goalkeeper relative to the number of shots made by the attackers at a distance greater than 5 m by the opponent players
Goalkeeper-blocked pe-nalty shots Percentage of penalties stopped by goalkeeper relative to the number of penalties taken by the opponent players
Goalkeeper-blocked Counterattack shots Percentage of shots stopped by goalkeeper during Counterattack action relative to the number of shots made by the attackers in this situation by the opponent players
Possessions A team's total number of possessions of the ball in a game (in line with each re-starting of the 30 s clock time).
Possession time A team's minutes of possession of the ball in a game