[Bug]: Parsing Win Probability PBP endpoint

[caseta]

NBA API Version

v1.11.4

Issue

👋 hello hi - attempted to use this endpoint and was having an issue. Had Cursor give me an analysis / summary below. Maybe the endpoint is just dead / not supported?

WinProbabilityPBP endpoint returns non-JSON payload (JSONDecodeError)

Summary

nba_api fails to parse responses from WinProbabilityPBP because the endpoint is returning a non-JSON error payload instead of expected JSON result sets.

This reproduces across multiple valid game IDs and raises json.decoder.JSONDecodeError.

---

Environment

• nba_api version: 1.11.4
• Python: 3.11.x
• OS: macOS (darwin)

---

Endpoint

• Class: nba_api.stats.endpoints.winprobabilitypbp.WinProbabilityPBP
• URL shape:
  • https://stats.nba.com/stats/winprobabilitypbp?GameID=<GAME_ID>&RunType=each+second

---

Reproduction

from nba_api.stats.endpoints import winprobabilitypbp

for gid in ["0022500855", "0022300061", "0021700807"]:
    print("testing", gid)
    endpoint = winprobabilitypbp.WinProbabilityPBP(
        game_id=gid,
        run_type="each second",
    )
    data = endpoint.get_normalized_dict()
    print("ok", list(data.keys()), len(data.get("WinProbPBP", [])))

Actual result

json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

Expected result

Successful JSON parsing with datasets such as GameInfo and WinProbPBP (or equivalent normalized dict output).

---

Additional diagnostics

Using nba_api low-level HTTP internals (NBAStatsHTTP) for the same endpoint request shows raw response text that is not JSON. The response begins with:

Sap.Data.Hana.HanaException (0x80004005): Connection failed (RTE:[89013] Socket closed by peer ...

This indicates the failure is upstream/non-JSON response content, not only a JSON parser issue.

---

Notes

• Reproduced with multiple game IDs (including a historical example game ID).
• Other NBA stats endpoints can still work in the same runtime, so this appears endpoint-specific (or endpoint/backend-path specific).
• Requesting guidance on whether this is:
  • a known upstream issue for winprobabilitypbp,
  • a transient service issue,
  • or something nba_api should handle with clearer error reporting.

---

Suggested improvement

If possible, nba_api could surface a clearer exception when non-JSON responses are returned (including a short response prefix), rather than only raising JSONDecodeError.

Code

No response

[rli007]

Running into the same issue, did you find a fix?