Kevin Pelton at Basketball-Prospectus.com did a statistical power-ranking (calculated by strength of schedule and margin of win/loss) based on the team's peformance in Febuary only. http://basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2093 I think it is interesting to look at since the abbreviated preseason cause teams not to perform close to what would have been the normal "regular season level" until a month or so into the season. Thus, the Febuary-only stats may be more reflective of what teams will do going forward than the stats generated for the entire season so far. The numbers are: EASTERN CONFERENCE Team ADiff -------------------------- Miami 10.2 Chicago 7.1 Orlando 5.0 New York 3.1 Indiana 0.3 Detroit -0.2 Philadelphia -0.6 Boston -1.4 Team ADiff -------------------------- Milwaukee -3.8 Cleveland -4.1 Toronto -4.5 New Jersey -5.7 Atlanta -7.2 Washington -7.3 Charlotte -17.6 WESTERN CONFERENCE Team ADiff -------------------------- Oklahoma City 8.7 Portland 6.4 San Antonio 4.0 Dallas 4.0 L.A. Clippers 3.0 Golden State 2.6 Houston 2.1 Memphis 1.4 Team ADiff -------------------------- L.A. Lakers 0.7 Phoenix -0.3 Sacramento -0.7 Denver -0.9* Minnesota -0.9 Utah -3.6 New Orleans -4.8 *I can't find Denver on the list, emailed Kevin Pelton and he told me they are at -0.9. (For the full-season rankings, go here: http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2012.html (the "SRS" is basically an ajusted point differential number) What I noticed: 1. The Rockets' February performance is overall at the same statistical level as their January performance. Of course, the January performance has more extremes (both the 3-7 star and the 7 game win streak), the Feb data is a little less volitile. They basically look like a lower-playoff seed-ish team. 2. New York has been good during February (i.e. the J. Lin era), ranking 8th, their win total may have been inflated by cupcake opponents, but the quality of play has been high. 3. Portland is an interesting case. Their "adjusted differential" is inflated because they had 4 blowout wins in February of 20, 20, 40 and 44 points, and the 40 point victory came against the Spurs (Duncan, Ginobili and Parker sat out, but the calculation doesn't account for it). Their season record sucks so far due to poor performance in close games. According to Morey, this is likely luck, but let's see if the Blazers are uniquely "unclutch" for the rest of the season. 3. Charlotte has been ridicuolusly horrible. It is 10 points per 100 possessions worse than the next worst team. They don't even look like they belong in the same league as the rest of the teams. 4. Utah has gone into the tank after a hot start. I don't think they'll be a playoff-spot competitor for the Rockets. 5. Teams currently behind the Rockets in record but look to be threats to steal the Rockets playoff spot or jump over them for their current 6th seed: Portland (if their luck in close games turn around), Denver (with Gallinari back), Memphis (Zach Randolph returning), Golden State (has been playing better of late, including a victory against the Rockets, but they are in a decent sized hole at 13-17). 6. The West looks much stronger than the East, but what else is new?
