total points affect nothing in the engine, so it's pretty irrelevant.
And no, you can't trust the stats used... just look at any player before turnovers were officially kept. Fabricated number. Advanced rebounding numbers? Fabricated. Blocked shots? Fabricated. And then they use some of these fabricated numbers to determine other numbers, like defense. Thus, James Harden is a better defender than Bill Russell.
Laughing yet?