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.
Predictive-Scoring. This value indicates how many points a team would be expected to score if it played an identical team.
Predictive-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.
Predictive-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.
Home Scoring. This is an adjustment to the scoring ranking applied at home. Values are nonzero only for baseball, where park effects can be significant.

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
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  P-SCR  P-OFF  P-DEF  H-SCR
LOS ANGELES 31  7 2917 2628  0.053 19.204    1  1.428    1  0.598    1  0.506    1 0.5792  3.582  1.082 -0.070  0.000
HOUSTON     25 10 2286 2110  0.037 17.475    2  1.147    2  0.384    2  0.325    2 0.5537  3.265 -0.340  0.989  0.000
UTAH        22 15 2780 2736  0.081 19.712    3  0.897    3  0.216    5  0.116    3 0.5330  3.634  0.917 -0.686  0.000
NEW YORK    22 18 2666 2568  0.002 20.101    4  0.706    4  0.077    3  0.149    4 0.5097  3.379 -0.091  0.388  0.000
WASHINGTON  20 17 2486 2471 -0.013 18.675    5  0.646    5  0.058    7 -0.028    7 0.5041  3.431 -0.068  0.013  0.000
SEATTLE     17 17 2308 2250  0.049 17.717    6  0.601    6  0.021    4  0.138    5 0.5073  3.407  0.005  0.270  0.000
CHARLOTTE   18 16 2362 2269 -0.043 16.504    7  0.576    8  0.002    6  0.091    8 0.4992  3.470  0.205 -0.023  0.000
PORTLAND    16 16 2195 2227  0.011 16.599    8  0.574    7  0.005    8 -0.041    6 0.5047  3.482  0.123 -0.205  0.000
INDIANA     17 18 2295 2343 -0.003 18.014    9  0.526    9 -0.030   10 -0.062    9 0.4938  3.406 -0.198  0.075  0.000
ORLANDO     16 16 2254 2255 -0.052 15.748   10  0.515   10 -0.041    9 -0.043   10 0.4923  3.521  0.279 -0.364  0.000
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  P-SCR  P-OFF  P-DEF  H-SCR
MIAMI       15 17 2046 2088 -0.022 16.280   11  0.478   11 -0.063   11 -0.091   12 0.4878  3.349 -0.446  0.264  0.000
SACRAMENTO  14 18 2166 2294 -0.012 16.704   12  0.419   12 -0.103   12 -0.173   11 0.4884  3.484 -0.001 -0.345  0.000
PHOENIX     11 21 2091 2291 -0.019 16.972   13  0.195   13 -0.267   16 -0.397   13 0.4672  3.468 -0.288 -0.507  0.000
MINNESOTA   10 22 2003 2104 -0.014 16.614   14  0.129   14 -0.330   14 -0.206   14 0.4596  3.313 -0.696  0.283  0.000
CLEVELAND   10 22 2071 2140 -0.035 16.198   15  0.128   15 -0.335   13 -0.198   15 0.4508  3.378 -0.444  0.049  0.000
DETROIT      9 23 2114 2266 -0.073 16.069   16  0.000   16 -0.415   15 -0.283   16 0.4411  3.467 -0.181 -0.385  0.000

WESTERN CONFERENCE
                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  P-SCR  P-OFF  P-DEF  H-SCR
LOS ANGELES 31  7 2917 2628  0.053 19.204    1  1.428    1  0.598    1  0.506    1 0.5792  3.582  1.082 -0.070  0.000
HOUSTON     25 10 2286 2110  0.037 17.475    2  1.147    2  0.384    2  0.325    2 0.5537  3.265 -0.340  0.989  0.000
UTAH        22 15 2780 2736  0.081 19.712    3  0.897    3  0.216    5  0.116    3 0.5330  3.634  0.917 -0.686  0.000
SEATTLE     17 17 2308 2250  0.049 17.717    6  0.601    6  0.021    4  0.138    5 0.5073  3.407  0.005  0.270  0.000
PORTLAND    16 16 2195 2227  0.011 16.599    8  0.574    7  0.005    8 -0.041    6 0.5047  3.482  0.123 -0.205  0.000
SACRAMENTO  14 18 2166 2294 -0.012 16.704   12  0.419   12 -0.103   12 -0.173   11 0.4884  3.484 -0.001 -0.345  0.000
PHOENIX     11 21 2091 2291 -0.019 16.972   13  0.195   13 -0.267   16 -0.397   13 0.4672  3.468 -0.288 -0.507  0.000
MINNESOTA   10 22 2003 2104 -0.014 16.614   14  0.129   14 -0.330   14 -0.206   14 0.4596  3.313 -0.696  0.283  0.000

EASTERN CONFERENCE
                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  P-SCR  P-OFF  P-DEF  H-SCR
NEW YORK    22 18 2666 2568  0.002 20.101    4  0.706    4  0.077    3  0.149    4 0.5097  3.379 -0.091  0.388  0.000
WASHINGTON  20 17 2486 2471 -0.013 18.675    5  0.646    5  0.058    7 -0.028    7 0.5041  3.431 -0.068  0.013  0.000
CHARLOTTE   18 16 2362 2269 -0.043 16.504    7  0.576    8  0.002    6  0.091    8 0.4992  3.470  0.205 -0.023  0.000
INDIANA     17 18 2295 2343 -0.003 18.014    9  0.526    9 -0.030   10 -0.062    9 0.4938  3.406 -0.198  0.075  0.000
ORLANDO     16 16 2254 2255 -0.052 15.748   10  0.515   10 -0.041    9 -0.043   10 0.4923  3.521  0.279 -0.364  0.000
MIAMI       15 17 2046 2088 -0.022 16.280   11  0.478   11 -0.063   11 -0.091   12 0.4878  3.349 -0.446  0.264  0.000
CLEVELAND   10 22 2071 2140 -0.035 16.198   15  0.128   15 -0.335   13 -0.198   15 0.4508  3.378 -0.444  0.049  0.000
DETROIT      9 23 2114 2266 -0.073 16.069   16  0.000   16 -0.415   15 -0.283   16 0.4411  3.467 -0.181 -0.385  0.000

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 146 126 0.537    1  0.038
EASTERN CONFERENCE 127 147 0.464    2 -0.075

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

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Mon Dec 31 14:13:04 2007
games through: Sat Aug 31 2002

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