Comments on: The Most Lopsided Series Sweeps of All-Time

By: MikeN

MikeN — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:51:04 +0000

Celtcs over Atlanta in 7 games was pretty lopsided too. 12 ppg despite the losses.

By: Neil Paine

Neil Paine — Thu, 20 May 2010 03:31:53 +0000

Sorry for not replying earlier -- if I included a pace adjustment, I'd have to limit the sample to series since 1991 (we don't have playoff game logs, and therefore can't calculate pace, for years before '91). The good news is that when dealing with margin of victory, pace is nowhere near as important as it is when working with points scored or points allowed alone, since each team has the same # of possessions. A blowout of equal absolute proportions by efficiency differential will appear bigger in a higher-pace game than it actually was, but the effect usually doesn't make a huge impact (that's why SRS works).

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 20 May 2010 02:35:17 +0000

Neil, anything re: adjusting for pace?

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Mon, 17 May 2010 04:31:44 +0000

"Um notice that the 2001 lakers sweep of the Spurs ranks high on all the lists. Also It happens to be the second highest 4 game sweep behind this current atl-orl one. Yet one minor detail. The Lakers swept the team with THE BEST RECORD IN THE LEAGUE, starting in the Spurs own building (obviously they had the best record) in the 3rd round (not the 2nd)." THE BEST RECORD IN THE LEAGUE doesn't sound as impressive when you see that the Lakers were ONLY TWO GAMES BEHIND THE SPURS. By the time the series started, the teams had identical records. "The most impressive sweep in history is the 2001 lakers-spurs wcf. (Since that team had won the 1999 title and 2003 title with the same core players)" What does core mean to you, Laker guy? Only four of the players from the 1999 team played on the 2003 team. It's good that the Lakers have such a maniacal cult behind them, or else no one would know what awesome achievements they have under their belt.

By: ryan

ryan — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:47:43 +0000

Shouldn't the average margin of victory also be adjusted for pace?

By: Max

Max — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:53:13 +0000

Um notice that the 2001 lakers sweep of the Spurs ranks high on all the lists. Also It happens to be the second highest 4 game sweep behind this current atl-orl one. Yet one minor detail. The Lakers swept the team with THE BEST RECORD IN THE LEAGUE, starting in the Spurs own building (obviously they had the best record) in the 3rd round (not the 2nd). Its not even remotely close. The most impressive sweep in history is the 2001 lakers-spurs wcf. (Since that team had won the 1999 title and 2003 title with the same core players)

Also If u combine the homecourt with the geometric mean (i.e correct for home court then do a geometric mean) then I think the standings will adjust again in an interesting way.

Shouldn't ginormous margins mean less anyway? once you are up 25 in the fourth quarter you sit your starters and the end result is hardly reflective of the core payers from either team and is therefore not indicative of how one-sided a series may ultimately be (in terms of what the numbers say) Numbers are far more accurate measures of teams worth in close series.

By: Mike G

Mike G — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:22:06 +0000

Beating some patsies by 31.7 ppg over 3 games is not as impressive as averaging +25.3 in a 2nd-round series.
Last year's Den-NO 5-game differential of 24.2 has to be in the comparison somehow. In the 4 Den wins, the average was +30.8