Evaluation of Differentiating Attacking and Defensive Performance for Various Playing Positions during the Tokyo Olympics Men’s Basketball Competition
(Wenping Sun, LianYee Kok, ChenSoon Chee)

The purpose of this study was to differentiate the attack-defense performance at various playing positions between the top and bottom teams during the Tokyo Olympics men’s basketball competition, and to determine the relationship between the attack-defense performance of various positions and the final competition rankings. The rank-sum ratio (RSR) was employed to describe the attack-defense abilities of a total of 144 male players from 12 participating teams, which were divided into three groups according to their playing positions, namely centers (n = 27), forwards (n = 58), and guards (n = 59). Additionally, the independent sample t-test and Spearman Rho Correlation analyses were conducted to evaluate the differences and relationships among the various variables, respectively, at a 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that there were significant differences in points (p = 0.003), the 2-point field goal made percentage (p = 0.035), and defensive rebounds (p = 0.004) at the guard position, and assists (p = 0.047) at the forward position between the top four and the bottom four teams. The attack-defense ranks of the guard position presented high positive correlations (p = 0.000, r = 0.876) with the final competition rankings, while the center (p = 0.017, r = 0.669) and forward positions (p = 0.036, r = 0.608) showed moderate positive correlations. These results may be considered by coaches and players to include targeted training to improve the overall strength of the team.