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      31  7 3505 3168 -0.011 18.024    1  0.674    1  0.669    1  0.555    1 0.5718    7  3.727    2  0.695    3  0.416
VALKYRIES 25 11 2971 2758  0.060 18.217    2  0.460    2  0.447    2  0.446    2 0.5494   15  3.519   11 -0.312    1  1.205
ACES      25 14 3528 3403  0.061 20.129    3  0.359    3  0.350    5  0.253    3 0.5392    5  3.737    4  0.436    6  0.069
DREAM     24 13 3382 3175  0.017 18.201    4  0.337    4  0.317    3  0.383    4 0.5342    6  3.731    3  0.538    4  0.227
FEVER     24 14 3656 3457  0.020 18.832    5  0.304    5  0.283    4  0.366    5 0.5305    1  3.824    1  0.959   11 -0.227
WINGS     21 16 3275 3195  0.084 19.492    7  0.219    7  0.205    7  0.158    6 0.5236   10  3.695    6  0.151    5  0.166
LIBERTY   24 15 3541 3414 -0.033 18.794    6  0.220    6  0.209    6  0.179    7 0.5236    4  3.737    5  0.366    7 -0.008
MYSTICS   21 15 2952 2976  0.013 18.445    8  0.191    8  0.194    8  0.021    8 0.5214   14  3.549   14 -0.614    2  0.657
SKY       15 22 3230 3302 -0.023 18.645    9 -0.202   10 -0.211    9 -0.134    9 0.4759    8  3.719    7 -0.033   12 -0.235
FIRE      15 21 3115 3272 -0.060 17.911   10 -0.217    9 -0.209   10 -0.278   10 0.4756    9  3.706   10 -0.236   13 -0.320
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
MERCURY   13 24 3109 3247 -0.021 18.899   11 -0.327   11 -0.331   11 -0.291   11 0.4636   12  3.662   12 -0.443    8 -0.140
SPARKS    13 24 3245 3438 -0.040 18.787   12 -0.339   12 -0.332   13 -0.385   12 0.4634    3  3.765    9 -0.069   14 -0.700
TEMPO     11 25 3151 3379 -0.002 18.898   13 -0.417   13 -0.417   14 -0.453   13 0.4576    2  3.786    8 -0.039   15 -0.868
SUN        9 27 2845 3133 -0.069 18.097   14 -0.576   14 -0.580   15 -0.576   14 0.4374   13  3.601   15 -0.995    9 -0.156
STORM      7 30 3080 3268 -0.046 18.721   15 -0.685   15 -0.726   12 -0.342   15 0.4251   11  3.668   13 -0.468   10 -0.215

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      31  7 3505 3168 -0.011 18.024    1  0.674    1  0.669    1  0.555    1 0.5718    7  3.727    2  0.695    3  0.416
VALKYRIES 25 11 2971 2758  0.060 18.217    2  0.460    2  0.447    2  0.446    2 0.5494   15  3.519   11 -0.312    1  1.205
ACES      25 14 3528 3403  0.061 20.129    3  0.359    3  0.350    5  0.253    3 0.5392    5  3.737    4  0.436    6  0.069
WINGS     21 16 3275 3195  0.084 19.492    7  0.219    7  0.205    7  0.158    6 0.5236   10  3.695    6  0.151    5  0.166
FIRE      15 21 3115 3272 -0.060 17.911   10 -0.217    9 -0.209   10 -0.278   10 0.4756    9  3.706   10 -0.236   13 -0.320
MERCURY   13 24 3109 3247 -0.021 18.899   11 -0.327   11 -0.331   11 -0.291   11 0.4636   12  3.662   12 -0.443    8 -0.140
SPARKS    13 24 3245 3438 -0.040 18.787   12 -0.339   12 -0.332   13 -0.385   12 0.4634    3  3.765    9 -0.069   14 -0.700
STORM      7 30 3080 3268 -0.046 18.721   15 -0.685   15 -0.726   12 -0.342   15 0.4251   11  3.668   13 -0.468   10 -0.215

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     24 13 3382 3175  0.017 18.201    4  0.337    4  0.317    3  0.383    4 0.5342    6  3.731    3  0.538    4  0.227
FEVER     24 14 3656 3457  0.020 18.832    5  0.304    5  0.283    4  0.366    5 0.5305    1  3.824    1  0.959   11 -0.227
LIBERTY   24 15 3541 3414 -0.033 18.794    6  0.220    6  0.209    6  0.179    7 0.5236    4  3.737    5  0.366    7 -0.008
MYSTICS   21 15 2952 2976  0.013 18.445    8  0.191    8  0.194    8  0.021    8 0.5214   14  3.549   14 -0.614    2  0.657
SKY       15 22 3230 3302 -0.023 18.645    9 -0.202   10 -0.211    9 -0.134    9 0.4759    8  3.719    7 -0.033   12 -0.235
TEMPO     11 25 3151 3379 -0.002 18.898   13 -0.417   13 -0.417   14 -0.453   13 0.4576    2  3.786    8 -0.039   15 -0.868
SUN        9 27 2845 3133 -0.069 18.097   14 -0.576   14 -0.580   15 -0.576   14 0.4374   13  3.601   15 -0.995    9 -0.156

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 150 147 0.505    1  0.026
EASTERN CONFERENCE 128 131 0.494    2 -0.047

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.337 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: Sun Aug 23 05:30:14 2026
games through: Sat Aug 22 2026

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