During crunch time (last five minutes, ahead or behind by five points) which players have the highest usage percentage? According to the NBA Stats Glossary, usage percentage is “the percentage of team plays used by a player when he is on the floor”. To put it simply, which players are used the most at the end of games?

The top five high-usage closers (given at least 30 games played), by usage percentage, are Kobe, Jrue Holiday, James Harden, and LeBron James with usage percentages of 48.8% (I kid you not), 40.6%, 38.2%, 33.9%, and 32.0%, respectively.

The first thing that comes to mind is that Kobe has a ridiculous usage rate. During crunch time he gets about half of his team’s possessions. If Kobe ever has to miss a game due to injury (like what happened after the Dahntay Jones play), the Lakers will have to make up a ton of production, especially at the end of close games.

The second thing is how inefficient Holiday is relative to the other players (he actually has a negative net rating…meaning that he gives up more points per 100 possessions than he scores). I think that says a lot about the state of basketball in Philadelphia — their high-usage closer is actually detrimental to their team.

The third thing is how efficient LeBron is in crunch time. He is head and shoulders above other high-usage players at the end of games — not only does he have the best offensive rating, but he also has the best defensive rating.

Data is from here.