Shots

The shots section in the markings response contains an object for each shot attempt in a game: either a field goal attempt or a shooting foul where the shot was not made.

Overview

This data set provides complete shot information including timing, location, outcome, and classification. Every shot from the play by play data will appear here, and can be joined with more detailed mechanics data in jump_shots or interior_shots depending on the shot type.

Sample Response

json

{
  "markings": {
    "shots": [
      {
        "blocker_player_id_nba": null,
        "chance_id_ctg": "chance_51bfc1fda2cc0deb125bee9988859667",
        "end_game_clock": 708,
        "end_he_frame": 761,
        "end_shot_clock": 13,
        "end_wall_clock": "2025-12-23T01:10:47.139+00:00",
        "event_pbp_id": 7,
        "game_id_nba": "0022500404",
        "is_and_one": false,
        "is_bank": false,
        "is_blocked": false,
        "is_fouled": false,
        "is_made": true,
        "is_three": false,
        "is_tip": false,
        "league_avg_make_probability_at_release": 0.6342,
        "loc_x": 460.5,
        "loc_y": 13.91,
        "num_close_teammates": 1,
        "num_dribbles_during_touch": 2,
        "pbp_event_id": 7,
        "period": 1,
        "player_adj_make_probability_at_release": 0.6518,
        "possession_id_ctg": "possession_640fb5737252cbe98b4f4a70dcee9d8f",
        "is_quick_no_dribble_shot": false,
        "shooter_id_nba": 203076,
        "shooter_acceleration": 0.68,
        "shooter_rim_movement_angle_after_shot": 12.47,
        "shooter_rim_movement_angle_before_shot": -5.31,
        "shooter_velocity_after_shot": 4.92,
        "shooter_velocity_before_shot": 4.24,
        "shot_distance_in": 42.82,
        "shot_id_ctg": "shot_105f89542695fcebf740bb7c426ac4c3",
        "shot_type": "layup",
        "start_game_clock": 708,
        "start_he_frame": 749,
        "start_shot_clock": 14,
        "start_wall_clock": "2025-12-23T01:10:46.939+00:00",
        "team_id_nba": 1610612742,
        "touch_time_before_shot": 0.78
      }
    ]
  }
}

Fields

Identifiers

`shot_id_ctg`

Type: string

CTG-generated unique shot ID

`game_id_nba`

Type: string

NBA game ID

`chance_id_ctg`

Type: string

CTG chance ID in which the shot occurred

`possession_id_ctg`

Type: string

CTG possession ID in which the shot occurred

`shooter_id_nba`

Type: integer

NBA player ID of the shooter

`team_id_nba`

Type: integer

NBA team ID of the shooting team

`pbp_event_id`

Type: integer

Play-by-play event ID (i.e. NGSS ID) for this shot

`event_pbp_id` deprecated

Type: integer

Play-by-play event ID (i.e. NGSS ID) for this shot

Deprecated

Use pbp_event_id instead. This field will be removed in a future version.

Timing

`period`

Type: integer

Period in which the shot occurred (1-4 for regulation, 5+ for OT)

Shot Start

The shot start is defined as the first frame after the player releases the ball.

`start_game_clock`

Type: float

Game clock (seconds remaining in period) at shot start

`start_shot_clock`

Type: float

Shot clock at shot start

`start_he_frame`

Type: integer

Hawk-Eye frame at shot start

`start_wall_clock`

Type: string

UTC timestamp at shot start

Shot End

The shot end is defined as the first frame where the ball reaches basket height after the shot's peak. Specifically, it's the earliest of:

Close to hoop: The first frame where the center of the ball is within 16 inches of the center of the hoop and at basket height (between 118-125 inches / ~10 feet)
Below 10 feet: The first frame where the ball drops below 10 feet after reaching its peak

The shot's "peak" is the frame where the ball reaches its highest point and begins descending.

If neither condition is met within 5 seconds of the shot release, the peak frame itself is used as the shot end. (This can happen when a shot is blocked out of bounds, for example, so there is no ball tracking data with the ball below 10 feet.)

Nullable Fields

The shot end fields (end_game_clock, end_he_frame, end_shot_clock, end_wall_clock) can be null in rare cases where upstream HawkEye data has timing issues. When shot end cannot be determined, is_tip and shot_type will also be null.

`end_game_clock`

Type: float

Game clock at shot end. Can be null if shot end detection fails due to upstream data issues (see note above).

`end_shot_clock`

Type: float

Shot clock at shot end. Can be null if shot end detection fails due to upstream data issues (see note above).

`end_he_frame`

Type: integer

Hawk-Eye frame at shot end. Can be null if shot end detection fails due to upstream data issues (see note above).

`end_wall_clock`

Type: string

UTC timestamp at shot end. Can be null if shot end detection fails due to upstream data issues (see note above).

Shot Location

The shot location is defined as the shooter's centroid at the shot release frame.

`shot_distance_in`

Type: float | Unit: inches

Distance from the shot location (as defined above) to the center of the basket at the shot release frame. This distance is measured in 2D, i.e. as if you marked a spot on the floor where shooter's centroid was and then measured along the floor to the spot directly under the center of the basket.

`loc_x`

Type: float | Unit: inches

X coordinate of the shot location on the court

`loc_y`

Type: float | Unit: inches

Y coordinate of the shot location on the court

Shooter Movement

These fields describe how the shooter was moving in the moments around the shot — how fast they were traveling, whether they were accelerating or decelerating, and what direction they were moving relative to the basket. All values are measured over a 0.6-second window before or after the release frame of the shot.

`shooter_velocity_before_shot`

Type: float | Unit: ft/s

How fast the shooter was moving in the 0.6 seconds before the release frame.

`shooter_velocity_after_shot`

Type: float | Unit: ft/s

How fast the shooter was moving in the 0.6 seconds after the release frame.

`shooter_acceleration`

Type: float | Unit: ft/s

The change in the shooter's speed from before to after the shot release (shooter_velocity_after_shot minus shooter_velocity_before_shot). A positive value means the shooter was moving faster after the release frame than before it; a negative value means they were slowing down.

`shooter_rim_movement_angle_before_shot`

Type: float | Unit: degrees

The direction the shooter was moving relative to the basket in the 0.6 seconds before the release frame. Angles are centered on the basket: 0° means moving directly toward or away from the basket, positive values indicate movement to the right of the basket (from the shooter's perspective), and negative values indicate movement to the left. Values range from -180 to 180.

`shooter_rim_movement_angle_after_shot`

Type: float | Unit: degrees

The direction the shooter was moving relative to the basket in the 0.6 seconds after the release frame, using the same convention as shooter_rim_movement_angle_before_shot.

`num_close_teammates`

Type: integer

Number of offensive teammates within 7.5 feet of the shooter at the time of the shot release.

Shot Make Probability

These fields estimate the probability that the shot will be made based on the tracking context at release. Values range from 0 to 1, where 0.5 means a 50% estimated make probability. They are not adjusted for the added value of three point shots, so if you want to see an eFG% equivalent, you will need to multiply by 1.5 on three point attempts.

`league_avg_make_probability_at_release`

Type: float

The league average shot make model estimates the probability that a given shot attempt will be made, based purely on the characteristics of the shot itself rather than on who is taking it. You can think of the output as: "If a typical NBA player took this exact shot, in this exact situation, how often would it go in?"

For every shot we detect from the 3D tracking data, we extract a set of features that describe both the shot and the surrounding context at the moment of release.

WARNING

Because this model is keyed to the release of the shot, it means that if a player is stripped on the way up or blocked or fouled, the ball release can happen at a time when the shot probability is already very low. So these shots will have very low probabilities assigned.

The features used to estimate the make probability fall into a few broad categories:

Game context: shot clock or game clock remaining, whether the shooter was fouled on the attempt, etc.
Shot location and difficulty: distance from the rim, ball position relative to the rim at release, etc.
Shot mechanics: how long the shooter held the ball before releasing, ball velocity at release, etc.
Defensive pressure: how close defender hands are to the ball during the windup and at release, plus a similar set of features describing how quickly defender hands are closing on the ball.

Probability estimates are made out-of-sample for all shots. In other words, each historical shot is scored by a model that was not trained on that shot to ensure estimates are representative of live future performance and not overfit to the current data.

`player_adj_make_probability_at_release`

Type: float

The player adjusted model takes the league average probability for a shot and modifies it based on the specific shooter's recent track record. The result is a per-shot probability that answers a slightly different question: "Given that this particular player is taking this shot, how often would we expect it to go in?"

The player adjusted probability starts from the league average probability and applies a player-specific shift. The shift is positive for shooters who have outperformed league expectations on similar shots prior to the game in question, negative for shooters who have underperformed, and close to zero for shooters whose results have tracked the league baseline.

The adjustment is computed separately for different categories of shots so that a player's strengths and weaknesses in different parts of the floor are reflected appropriately. Specifically, shots are bucketed by:

Distance from the rim: 0 to 4 feet, 4 to 14 feet, 14 to 22 feet, 22 to 30 feet, and over 30 feet.
Defender pressure at release: open versus contested.

Some key points:

Only shots taken before the current game are used to build a player's adjustment. When we score a shot from a given game, the player's adjustment reflects what they had done up to but not including that game. This means that players with no (or few) prior games will have a small or zero adjustment.
Adjustments are regularized toward the league average. A player who has only a handful of attempts in a given bucket will receive a small adjustment, even if their early shooting percentage is extreme. The strength of the regularization scales with sample size, so adjustments grow more confident as a player accumulates attempts.
The adjustment is applied on the log-odds scale. Practically this means a fixed "player skill" advantage produces a larger absolute swing in the middle of the probability range and a smaller swing near 0 or 1. A shooter who is reliably above average will not be pushed past plausible make rates on already-easy looks, and a poor shooter will not be pushed below realistic rates on already-tough looks.

Pre-Shot Touch

These fields describe the ball-handling touch that immediately preceded the shot — how long the shooter had the ball and how many times they dribbled during that touch.

`num_dribbles_during_touch`

Type: integer

Number of dribbles the shooter took during the possession touch that immediately preceded the shot. A value of 0 means the shooter did not dribble during the touch before the shot.

`is_quick_no_dribble_shot`

Type: boolean

true when the shooter took no dribbles during the possession touch immediately before the shot and released the shot within 2 seconds of starting that touch. This applies to both jump shots and layups. For jump shots it can help you identify catch-and-shoot situations.

`touch_time_before_shot`

Type: float | Unit: seconds

Duration of the possession touch that immediately preceded the shot, in seconds. null if no preceding touch could be identified (for example, on tip shots or plays where tracking data is incomplete).

Shot Details

`shot_type`

Type: string

The shot_type field classifies the shot using 3D tracking data to analyze movement and release style. Can be null if shot end detection fails due to upstream data issues.

dunk: A dunk or dunk attempt that is not a lob.
floater: A floater would be a shot taken near the rim and uses one hand to shoot overhand with the player largely facing the basket. A baby hook shot or push shot with the player's shoulder mostly turned to the basket would be different (see below). This also includes runners and shots from further away that are taken without a normal jump shot shooting motion, almost always with a one-handed push shooting motion.
heave: A shot from very far away taken up against the end of the shot/game clock.
hook: A shot taken primarily with one hand and with the back or side turned toward the basket, usually not moving toward the basket.
jumper: A jump shot with two hands on the ball until pushing to release. This includes a large variety of jump shots like a standard jumper, a fadeaway out of the post, a pull up, etc.
layup: Any shot near the basket that is not a dunk, lob, or tip. Layups and floaters can sometimes be difficult to distinguish. More weight is given to a shot being classified as a layup over a floater if it uses the backboard.
lob: A shot near the basket where shooter receives a pass and shoots without landing first. Includes lob dunks.
lost_ball_on_way_up: A shot where the ball is blocked or the player is fouled and loses the ball such that you can’t actually tell which type of shot it was going to be.
putback: Player dunks or shoots immediately after an offensive rebound without landing.
tip: Player hits the ball with one hand after a missed shot to tip it in without landing from their jump first. This does not include tips from passes, which would be considered lobs.

Jump Shots vs Interior Shots

In other sections of our markings, we separate jump shots from interior shots. jumper shots have detailed mechanics in the jump_shots section, while other shot types have their mechanics in interior_shots.

`is_three`

Type: boolean

true if the shot was a three-point attempt

`is_tip`

Type: boolean

true if the shot was a tip-in attempt. Can be null if shot end detection fails due to upstream data issues.

`is_made`

Type: boolean

true if the shot was made

`is_bank`

Type: boolean

The is_bank field indicates whether the ball hit the front side of the backboard and changed trajectory before hitting the rim.

Returns true only if the ball hits the front of the backboard first
Returns false if the ball hits the side, back, or top of the backboard first
Returns false if the ball hits the rim first
Returns false if the ball never gets near the backboard before the shot end frame (e.g. an airball)
Returns null if the shot is blocked (since we can't determine if it would have been a bank)

`is_blocked`

Type: boolean

true if the shot was blocked

`blocker_player_id_nba`

Type: integer

NBA player ID of the blocker. null if not blocked

`is_fouled`

Type: boolean

true if the shooter was fouled during the shot

`is_and_one`

Type: boolean

true if the shot was made and the shooter was fouled

Shots ​

Overview ​

Sample Response ​

Fields ​

Identifiers ​

shot_id_ctg ​

game_id_nba ​

chance_id_ctg ​

possession_id_ctg ​

shooter_id_nba ​

team_id_nba ​

pbp_event_id ​

event_pbp_id deprecated ​

Timing ​

period ​

Shot Start ​

start_game_clock ​

start_shot_clock ​

start_he_frame ​

start_wall_clock ​

Shot End ​

end_game_clock ​

end_shot_clock ​

end_he_frame ​

end_wall_clock ​

Shot Location ​

shot_distance_in ​

loc_x ​

loc_y ​

Shooter Movement ​

shooter_velocity_before_shot ​

shooter_velocity_after_shot ​

shooter_acceleration ​

shooter_rim_movement_angle_before_shot ​

shooter_rim_movement_angle_after_shot ​

num_close_teammates ​

Shot Make Probability ​

league_avg_make_probability_at_release ​

player_adj_make_probability_at_release ​

Pre-Shot Touch ​

num_dribbles_during_touch ​

is_quick_no_dribble_shot ​

touch_time_before_shot ​

Shot Details ​

shot_type ​

is_three ​

is_tip ​

is_made ​

is_bank ​

is_blocked ​

blocker_player_id_nba ​

is_fouled ​

is_and_one ​

Shots

Overview

Sample Response

Fields

Identifiers

`shot_id_ctg`

`game_id_nba`

`chance_id_ctg`

`possession_id_ctg`

`shooter_id_nba`

`team_id_nba`

`pbp_event_id`

`event_pbp_id` deprecated

Timing

`period`

Shot Start

`start_game_clock`

`start_shot_clock`

`start_he_frame`

`start_wall_clock`

Shot End

`end_game_clock`

`end_shot_clock`

`end_he_frame`

`end_wall_clock`

Shot Location

`shot_distance_in`

`loc_x`

`loc_y`

Shooter Movement

`shooter_velocity_before_shot`

`shooter_velocity_after_shot`

`shooter_acceleration`

`shooter_rim_movement_angle_before_shot`

`shooter_rim_movement_angle_after_shot`

`num_close_teammates`

Shot Make Probability

`league_avg_make_probability_at_release`

`player_adj_make_probability_at_release`

Pre-Shot Touch

`num_dribbles_during_touch`

`is_quick_no_dribble_shot`

`touch_time_before_shot`

Shot Details

`shot_type`

`is_three`

`is_tip`

`is_made`

`is_bank`

`is_blocked`

`blocker_player_id_nba`

`is_fouled`

`is_and_one`