About Own the Court

Own the Court is a small independent collection of daily NBA puzzle games. There are six: a basketball Wordle, the Mystery Player clue game, an NBA take on Connections, a career-stat Higher or Lower streak game, NBA Bingo, and Own the Court itself — a two-player hex territory game that the site is named after.

Every daily puzzle resets at midnight US Eastern and is identical for everyone in the world, so results are directly comparable with friends. Nothing needs to be installed and no account is required. Signing in is entirely optional and exists only to carry your streaks between devices.

Player biographies, career statistics, team histories and awards are sourced from the public NBA stats API and refreshed on a weekly schedule, so rosters, trades and new signings appear as the league processes them. Career totals update through the season rather than being frozen at a snapshot.

Because the underlying source counts NBA statistics only, ABA-era records and pre-merger selections are not included. Where a player's history is split across several franchises in one season, we follow the source's own team splits.

Daily answers are not chosen at random from the whole league. Each game draws from a curated pool of genuinely recognisable players: every NBA All-Star who debuted in the 1969-70 season or later, plus current players carrying a real scoring role. That pool is rebuilt each week from refreshed data, so a player who retires stops appearing and a first-time All-Star starts.

Schedules are generated ahead of time rather than picked live, which keeps the sequence stable and means a past puzzle always replays exactly as it was first played. Puzzles that have already been played are never rewritten.

Statistics are only as good as the source they come from, and occasionally a career total, an award or a team stint will look wrong. If you spot something, please tell us — include the player and the puzzle date and it will be checked against the source data.

Corrections are applied to future puzzles. Past puzzle results are left untouched, because people have already played and shared them.

Own the Court is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Basketball Association or any of its teams. All team names, player names and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used here only to identify the real people and franchises the puzzles are about.

The site is free to play. Read the privacy policy for what is stored and why, the terms of service for the rules of use, or get in touch.