Dolphin Ratings - Women's National Basketball Association

Explanation: Each team is listed with its record, overall score differential, and its ratings. Brief explanations of the ratings follow.

Schedule The number in this column is the effective opponent strength of a team. In other words, they would be expected to have the same record had they played all games against an opponent of this predictive rating at a neutral site. Because this calculation depends on the strength of the team in question, it is not possible to rank schedules using these values.
Expected Losses For college teams, this number is the number of losses an average ranked (top 15 hockey; otherwise top 25) team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. For pro teams, this is the number of losses an average team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. Unlike the schedule ranking, this value can be used to rank schedules.
Standard Ranks teams in an order such that a team is "probably better" than all teams ranked lower than it. This calculation uses margin of victory only for computing a team's opponents strengths; the team's rating itself is computed using only wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule
Median Likelihood Determines the likely ratings for each team, based on its wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule. This generally produces the same or similar ratings as the standard ranking.
Predictive Both schedule strength and rating vs. schedule strength are determined considering both the wins and losses and the score differentials. This rating contains none of the biases in the standard rating, but does weight recent games slightly more than past games since those are a better indication of the team's current strength. This rating is the best of the first three for seeing how good teams are, and thus is the best for predicting future results.
Improved RPI Rating The improved RPI formula is similar to the standard RPI, except that the schedule strength is carried out to infinite depth instead of ending with opponents' opponents, thus allows for a better comparison of isolated groups of teams than is given by the standard RPI calculation. It is similar to the simple rating, except that all games are given equal weight.
Scoring. This value indicates how many points a team would be expected to score if it played an identical team.
Offense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team scores. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to score the league average number of points. This does not necessarily rate a team's offensive abilities, as a fast pace in basketball or big-play defense in football can make a team score more points.
Defense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team allows. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to allow the league average number of points. The same caveat in the predictive-offense rating applies here.

In order to increase early-season stability, the three main rankings, the improved RPI, and the college pseudopoll include priors based on the previous season final predictive ratings and occasionally incorporating preseason predictions of various major publications. The other rankings for college sports do not include priors, and thus can be wildly unstable early in the year. A team whose rankings are affected by this prior is noted with a P following its rankings.

Full Ranking

                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
DETROIT     31 11 3125 2948 -0.023 19.792    1  0.376    1  0.356    2  0.195    1 0.5527    2  3.557    1  0.641    9 -0.250
LOS ANGELES 29 14 3153 3041  0.019 21.096    2  0.299    2  0.283    4  0.139    2 0.5411    1  3.561    2  0.601   12 -0.322
HOUSTON     21 16 2440 2325  0.006 17.840    3  0.118    4  0.093    1  0.202    3 0.5133   12  3.352    9 -0.171    1  0.574
SACRAMENTO  22 18 2676 2626  0.048 20.281    4  0.105    3  0.094    5  0.075    4 0.5133    9  3.403    8 -0.100    5  0.250
CONNECTICUT 20 18 2656 2689  0.012 19.116    5  0.055    5  0.045    9 -0.024    5 0.5083    4  3.511    5  0.229   11 -0.278
SEATTLE     18 16 2388 2274  0.017 16.507    6  0.047    7  0.028    3  0.144    6 0.5056    6  3.472    3  0.242    7  0.046
MINNESOTA   19 18 2587 2596  0.024 18.686    7  0.035    6  0.031    8 -0.017    7 0.5049    5  3.509    4  0.231   10 -0.265
CLEVELAND   18 19 2432 2422  0.013 18.485    8 -0.007    8 -0.017    7 -0.011    8 0.4998   11  3.365   12 -0.334    3  0.311
CHARLOTTE   18 18 2345 2331 -0.021 17.502    9 -0.013    9 -0.021    6 -0.010    9 0.4985   13  3.346   13 -0.406    2  0.385
INDIANA     16 18 2337 2321  0.003 16.838   10 -0.045   10 -0.055   10 -0.025   10 0.4924    8  3.454    7 -0.003    8 -0.048
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
NEW YORK    16 18 2243 2256 -0.017 16.705   11 -0.058   11 -0.062   11 -0.028   11 0.4909   10  3.392   11 -0.247    6  0.192
SAN ANTONIO 12 22 2215 2427 -0.019 17.541   12 -0.206   12 -0.209   14 -0.293   12 0.4650    7  3.460   10 -0.245   13 -0.342
WASHINGTON   9 25 2330 2498 -0.030 17.238   13 -0.337   13 -0.356   13 -0.230   13 0.4463    3  3.530    6  0.104   14 -0.563
PHOENIX      8 26 2097 2270 -0.005 17.576   14 -0.371   14 -0.394   12 -0.228   14 0.4399   14  3.319   14 -0.722    4  0.265

WESTERN CONFERENCE
                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
LOS ANGELES 29 14 3153 3041  0.019 21.096    2  0.299    2  0.283    4  0.139    2 0.5411    1  3.561    2  0.601   12 -0.322
HOUSTON     21 16 2440 2325  0.006 17.840    3  0.118    4  0.093    1  0.202    3 0.5133   12  3.352    9 -0.171    1  0.574
SACRAMENTO  22 18 2676 2626  0.048 20.281    4  0.105    3  0.094    5  0.075    4 0.5133    9  3.403    8 -0.100    5  0.250
SEATTLE     18 16 2388 2274  0.017 16.507    6  0.047    7  0.028    3  0.144    6 0.5056    6  3.472    3  0.242    7  0.046
MINNESOTA   19 18 2587 2596  0.024 18.686    7  0.035    6  0.031    8 -0.017    7 0.5049    5  3.509    4  0.231   10 -0.265
SAN ANTONIO 12 22 2215 2427 -0.019 17.541   12 -0.206   12 -0.209   14 -0.293   12 0.4650    7  3.460   10 -0.245   13 -0.342
PHOENIX      8 26 2097 2270 -0.005 17.576   14 -0.371   14 -0.394   12 -0.228   14 0.4399   14  3.319   14 -0.722    4  0.265

EASTERN CONFERENCE
                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
DETROIT     31 11 3125 2948 -0.023 19.792    1  0.376    1  0.356    2  0.195    1 0.5527    2  3.557    1  0.641    9 -0.250
CONNECTICUT 20 18 2656 2689  0.012 19.116    5  0.055    5  0.045    9 -0.024    5 0.5083    4  3.511    5  0.229   11 -0.278
CLEVELAND   18 19 2432 2422  0.013 18.485    8 -0.007    8 -0.017    7 -0.011    8 0.4998   11  3.365   12 -0.334    3  0.311
CHARLOTTE   18 18 2345 2331 -0.021 17.502    9 -0.013    9 -0.021    6 -0.010    9 0.4985   13  3.346   13 -0.406    2  0.385
INDIANA     16 18 2337 2321  0.003 16.838   10 -0.045   10 -0.055   10 -0.025   10 0.4924    8  3.454    7 -0.003    8 -0.048
NEW YORK    16 18 2243 2256 -0.017 16.705   11 -0.058   11 -0.062   11 -0.028   11 0.4909   10  3.392   11 -0.247    6  0.192
WASHINGTON   9 25 2330 2498 -0.030 17.238   13 -0.337   13 -0.356   13 -0.230   13 0.4463    3  3.530    6  0.104   14 -0.563

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 129 130 0.498    1  0.001
EASTERN CONFERENCE 128 127 0.502    2 -0.023

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.407 points in main ratings (0.226 for semineutral)
     0.032 points in improved RPI (0.023 for semineutral)
Average of 2.15 points per score

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Sat Dec 28 14:01:01 2024
games through: Tue Sep 16 2003

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