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
LYNX      25  6 2874 2584 -0.038 14.357    1  0.590    1  0.591    1  0.535    1 0.5660    6  3.729    2  0.682    3  0.388
VALKYRIES 20  9 2396 2232  0.063 14.740    2  0.414    2  0.414    2  0.412    2 0.5492   15  3.532   11 -0.298    1  1.122
ACES      21 10 2845 2691  0.032 15.528    3  0.378    3  0.375    4  0.362    3 0.5433    4  3.745    3  0.583    5  0.142
WINGS     19 11 2675 2553  0.033 15.075    4  0.293    4  0.284    5  0.261    4 0.5338   10  3.679    6  0.183    4  0.339
DREAM     18 11 2590 2496  0.056 14.906    5  0.286    5  0.273    6  0.182    5 0.5316    8  3.717    5  0.274    6  0.091
FEVER     19 11 2895 2720 -0.022 14.345    6  0.259    6  0.234    3  0.372    6 0.5280    1  3.839    1  1.034   12 -0.290
LIBERTY   19 13 2884 2800 -0.018 15.684    7  0.181    7  0.164    7  0.128    7 0.5212    5  3.734    4  0.296    8 -0.040
MYSTICS   16 12 2273 2320 -0.025 14.114    8  0.128    8  0.136    8 -0.091    8 0.5155   14  3.537   14 -0.779    2  0.597
MERCURY   12 19 2612 2707  0.023 16.288    9 -0.200    9 -0.207   10 -0.179   10 0.4740   12  3.650   12 -0.387    7  0.029
SPARKS    11 17 2510 2641 -0.018 14.440   10 -0.216   10 -0.214   11 -0.297    9 0.4745    2  3.783    7  0.098   14 -0.692
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SKY       11 19 2642 2700 -0.021 15.184   11 -0.265   12 -0.278    9 -0.128   12 0.4688    7  3.726    8  0.007   11 -0.263
FIRE      11 19 2586 2762 -0.014 15.605   12 -0.274   11 -0.259   12 -0.345   11 0.4691    9  3.709   10 -0.291   13 -0.400
TEMPO     10 19 2545 2716 -0.026 14.987   13 -0.335   13 -0.323   14 -0.435   13 0.4653    3  3.783    9 -0.041   15 -0.829
SUN        7 23 2395 2620 -0.070 15.129   14 -0.583   14 -0.583   15 -0.486   14 0.4337   13  3.619   15 -0.825    9 -0.146
STORM      6 26 2642 2822 -0.026 16.550   15 -0.657   15 -0.684   13 -0.359   15 0.4276   11  3.660   13 -0.523   10 -0.194

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
LYNX      25  6 2874 2584 -0.038 14.357    1  0.590    1  0.591    1  0.535    1 0.5660    6  3.729    2  0.682    3  0.388
VALKYRIES 20  9 2396 2232  0.063 14.740    2  0.414    2  0.414    2  0.412    2 0.5492   15  3.532   11 -0.298    1  1.122
ACES      21 10 2845 2691  0.032 15.528    3  0.378    3  0.375    4  0.362    3 0.5433    4  3.745    3  0.583    5  0.142
WINGS     19 11 2675 2553  0.033 15.075    4  0.293    4  0.284    5  0.261    4 0.5338   10  3.679    6  0.183    4  0.339
MERCURY   12 19 2612 2707  0.023 16.288    9 -0.200    9 -0.207   10 -0.179   10 0.4740   12  3.650   12 -0.387    7  0.029
SPARKS    11 17 2510 2641 -0.018 14.440   10 -0.216   10 -0.214   11 -0.297    9 0.4745    2  3.783    7  0.098   14 -0.692
FIRE      11 19 2586 2762 -0.014 15.605   12 -0.274   11 -0.259   12 -0.345   11 0.4691    9  3.709   10 -0.291   13 -0.400
STORM      6 26 2642 2822 -0.026 16.550   15 -0.657   15 -0.684   13 -0.359   15 0.4276   11  3.660   13 -0.523   10 -0.194

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
DREAM     18 11 2590 2496  0.056 14.906    5  0.286    5  0.273    6  0.182    5 0.5316    8  3.717    5  0.274    6  0.091
FEVER     19 11 2895 2720 -0.022 14.345    6  0.259    6  0.234    3  0.372    6 0.5280    1  3.839    1  1.034   12 -0.290
LIBERTY   19 13 2884 2800 -0.018 15.684    7  0.181    7  0.164    7  0.128    7 0.5212    5  3.734    4  0.296    8 -0.040
MYSTICS   16 12 2273 2320 -0.025 14.114    8  0.128    8  0.136    8 -0.091    8 0.5155   14  3.537   14 -0.779    2  0.597
SKY       11 19 2642 2700 -0.021 15.184   11 -0.265   12 -0.278    9 -0.128   12 0.4688    7  3.726    8  0.007   11 -0.263
TEMPO     10 19 2545 2716 -0.026 14.987   13 -0.335   13 -0.323   14 -0.435   13 0.4653    3  3.783    9 -0.041   15 -0.829
SUN        7 23 2395 2620 -0.070 15.129   14 -0.583   14 -0.583   15 -0.486   14 0.4337   13  3.619   15 -0.825    9 -0.146

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 125 117 0.517    1  0.062
EASTERN CONFERENCE 100 108 0.481    2 -0.082

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

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Tue Aug  4 05:30:07 2026
games through: Mon Aug  3 2026

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