15th April 2011
61-21, 1st in NBA Southwest Division (Schedule and Results)
Coach: Gregg Popovich (61-21)
PTS/G: 103.7 (6th of 30) ▪ Opp PTS/G: 98.0 (14th of 30)
SRS: 5.86 (4th of 30) ▪ Pace: 92.3 (14th of 30)
Off Rtg: 111.8 (2nd of 30) ▪ Def Rtg: 105.6 (11th of 30)
Expected W-L: 56-26 (6th of 30)
Arena: AT&T Center ▪ Attendance: 750,879 (12th of 30)
Posted in Playoffs, Statgeekery, Statistical +/-, Win Shares | 4 Comments »
15th April 2011
52-30, 2nd in NBA Southeast Division (Schedule and Results)
Coach: Stan Van Gundy (52-30)
PTS/G: 99.2 (16th of 30) ▪ Opp PTS/G: 93.7 (4th of 30)
SRS: 4.92 (5th of 30) ▪ Pace: 91.4 (17th of 30)
Off Rtg: 107.7 (14th of 30) ▪ Def Rtg: 101.8 (3rd of 30)
Expected W-L: 56-26 (5th of 30)
Arena: Amway Center ▪ Attendance: 777,852 (9th of 30)
Posted in Playoffs, Statgeekery, Statistical +/-, Win Shares | Comments Off on Playoff Preview: #4 Orlando vs. #5 Atlanta
15th April 2011
56-26, 1st in NBA Atlantic Division (Schedule and Results)
Coach: Doc Rivers (56-26)
PTS/G: 96.5 (23rd of 30) ▪ Opp PTS/G: 91.1 (1st of 30)
SRS: 4.83 (6th of 30) ▪ Pace: 90.4 (22nd of 30)
Off Rtg: 106.2 (18th of 30) ▪ Def Rtg: 100.3 (2nd of 30)
Expected W-L: 57-25 (4th of 30)
Arena: TD Garden ▪ Attendance: 763,584 (11th of 30)
Posted in Playoffs, Statgeekery, Statistical +/-, Win Shares | 5 Comments »
15th April 2011
58-24, 1st in NBA Southeast Division (Schedule and Results)
Coach: Erik Spoelstra (58-24)
PTS/G: 102.1 (8th of 30) ▪ Opp PTS/G: 94.6 (6th of 30)
SRS: 6.76 (1st of 30) ▪ Pace: 90.9 (20th of 30)
Off Rtg: 111.7 (3rd of 30) ▪ Def Rtg: 103.5 (5th of 30)
Expected W-L: 61-21 (2nd of 30)
Arena: AmericanAirlines Arena ▪ Attendance: 810,930 (4th of 30)
Posted in Playoffs, Statgeekery, Statistical +/-, Win Shares | 3 Comments »
15th April 2011
62-20, 1st in NBA Central Division (Schedule and Results)
Coach: Tom Thibodeau (62-20)
SRS: 6.53 (2nd of 30) ▪ Pace: 90.4 (23rd of 30)
Off Rtg: 108.3 (11th of 30) ▪ Def Rtg: 100.3 (1st of 30)
Expected W-L: 61-21 (1st of 30)
Arena: United Center ▪ Attendance: 893,462 (1st of 30)
Posted in Playoffs, SRS, Statgeekery, Statistical +/-, Win Shares | Comments Off on Playoff Preview: #1 Chicago vs. #8 Indiana
16th February 2011
Prompted by some questions in the comments of Monday's post about the playoff predictivity of regular-season W-L vs. elite teams, here's some more raw data on every 2nd-round or later series since the merger:
Posted in Data Dump, History, Playoffs | 33 Comments »
14th February 2011
Despite their high overall marks, apparently neither the Lakers nor the Heat can beat the league's other so-called "elite" teams. Miami is just 6-9 this season against teams in the top 10 in W-L%, and 0-6 against top-5 teams. The Lakers are barely better, going 6-7 vs. top-10 squads and 2-6 against the top 5. Here's a summary of the other teams in the top 10 by either W-L% or point differential:
Posted in Analysis, History, Playoffs, Statgeekery | 41 Comments »
27th December 2010
These days, the NBA always schedules its Christmas Day games to be marquee matchups, with announcers copiously throwing around phrases like "playoff preview" during the broadcast. But historically, how often have holiday combatants actually gone on to meet again in the postseason? And when they did meet, how often did the Christmas winner repeat their victory?
Posted in Analysis, History, Holidays, Playoffs | Comments Off on Christmas Rematches in the Playoffs
17th December 2010
This is sort of a random data dump/trivia post, but this old Doug Drinen post about NFL teams' records vs. fellow playoff participants inspired me to run a similar query for NBA top-4 seeds' records against other top-4 seeds (in either conference). Since the NBA expanded to 16 playoff teams in 1984, here are the top-4 seeds with the best records vs. their fellow top-4 seeds:
Posted in Analysis, History, Playoffs, Totally Useless, Trivia | 13 Comments »
16th November 2010
The Miami Heat have been under fire recently for dominating weak foes and losing close games against good teams. The conventional wisdom is that this reveals a major gap in Miami's armor -- they just can't close the deal against stronger opponents.
Is this really true, though? And does it even matter?
Posted in Analysis, Playoffs, Statgeekery | 29 Comments »
