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
MINNESOTA   32 11 3617 3284  0.086 20.870    1  0.710    1  0.663    2  0.507    1 0.5573    4  3.635    2  0.775    4  0.240
INDIANA     29 15 3446 3199  0.110 22.217    2  0.500    4  0.452    1  0.563    3 0.5417    8  3.531    5  0.388    2  0.738
CONNECTICUT 28 11 3135 2982 -0.019 18.230    3  0.493    2  0.483    4  0.231    2 0.5454    6  3.616    4  0.414    6  0.048
LOS ANGELES 26 12 3207 3015  0.037 18.209    4  0.478    3  0.457    3  0.419    4 0.5411    1  3.687    1  0.917    8 -0.078
SAN ANTONIO 21 15 2970 2810  0.029 17.298    5  0.224    5  0.177    5  0.221    5 0.5184    5  3.632    3  0.476    7 -0.035
ATLANTA     20 17 2899 2818  0.054 18.529    6  0.155    6  0.111    6  0.212    6 0.5100    7  3.570    6  0.203    5  0.221
SEATTLE     17 20 2650 2666  0.019 18.739    7 -0.057    7 -0.096    7  0.010    7 0.4925   12  3.391   11 -0.721    1  0.742
CHICAGO     14 20 2558 2566 -0.007 16.788    8 -0.182    9 -0.232    8 -0.020    9 0.4781   10  3.504    8 -0.305    3  0.265
NEW YORK    15 21 2606 2765 -0.051 18.121    9 -0.205    8 -0.214    9 -0.302    8 0.4793    9  3.524    9 -0.504    9 -0.100
TULSA        9 25 2626 2863 -0.045 17.720   10 -0.539   10 -0.572   10 -0.477   10 0.4467    3  3.641    7 -0.182   11 -0.772
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
PHOENIX      7 27 2533 2949 -0.067 18.027   11 -0.699   11 -0.705   12 -0.966   11 0.4324    2  3.648   10 -0.641   12 -1.291
WASHINGTON   5 29 2331 2661 -0.066 17.603   12 -0.879   12 -0.932   11 -0.803   12 0.4182   11  3.483   12 -1.173   10 -0.432

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
MINNESOTA   32 11 3617 3284  0.086 20.870    1  0.710    1  0.663    2  0.507    1 0.5573    4  3.635    2  0.775    4  0.240
LOS ANGELES 26 12 3207 3015  0.037 18.209    4  0.478    3  0.457    3  0.419    4 0.5411    1  3.687    1  0.917    8 -0.078
SAN ANTONIO 21 15 2970 2810  0.029 17.298    5  0.224    5  0.177    5  0.221    5 0.5184    5  3.632    3  0.476    7 -0.035
SEATTLE     17 20 2650 2666  0.019 18.739    7 -0.057    7 -0.096    7  0.010    7 0.4925   12  3.391   11 -0.721    1  0.742
TULSA        9 25 2626 2863 -0.045 17.720   10 -0.539   10 -0.572   10 -0.477   10 0.4467    3  3.641    7 -0.182   11 -0.772
PHOENIX      7 27 2533 2949 -0.067 18.027   11 -0.699   11 -0.705   12 -0.966   11 0.4324    2  3.648   10 -0.641   12 -1.291

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
INDIANA     29 15 3446 3199  0.110 22.217    2  0.500    4  0.452    1  0.563    3 0.5417    8  3.531    5  0.388    2  0.738
CONNECTICUT 28 11 3135 2982 -0.019 18.230    3  0.493    2  0.483    4  0.231    2 0.5454    6  3.616    4  0.414    6  0.048
ATLANTA     20 17 2899 2818  0.054 18.529    6  0.155    6  0.111    6  0.212    6 0.5100    7  3.570    6  0.203    5  0.221
CHICAGO     14 20 2558 2566 -0.007 16.788    8 -0.182    9 -0.232    8 -0.020    9 0.4781   10  3.504    8 -0.305    3  0.265
NEW YORK    15 21 2606 2765 -0.051 18.121    9 -0.205    8 -0.214    9 -0.302    8 0.4793    9  3.524    9 -0.504    9 -0.100
WASHINGTON   5 29 2331 2661 -0.066 17.603   12 -0.879   12 -0.932   11 -0.803   12 0.4182   11  3.483   12 -1.173   10 -0.432

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 112 110 0.505    1 -0.021
EASTERN CONFERENCE 111 113 0.496    2 -0.030

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

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Sun Oct 12 21:42:30 2025
games through: Sun Oct 21 2012

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