I don't understand how the NBA selects the game schedule, but after taking a look in the ESPN archives, the Rockets have been in the top 5-8 in terms of strength of schedule...for the last couple of years. Why aren't we getting some princess schedule like Denver? With that said, the Rockets are doing quite well.
It's a very impressive amount of data and the analysis seemed reasonable. I would like stress on the importance of how accurate the analysis take into consideration on several factors affect the prediction i). team tanking when they have little chance of getting into playoff mathematically ii). inconsistency of team in games. I believed GSW has quite a high inconsistency. They can beat good teams like SAS or Dallas but lose to team like Chicago. iii).prone to injury. Some teams are prone to injury or statistically has a history of injury on their players. iv). there is also a chance that teams who has reached playoff or certain of their position in the playoff started to play their bench or rest their stars (remember Dallas last year).
. Code: Team W- L eSOS cSOS rSOS PJ(seed) Ho'PJ(seed) NOH 36-15 .510 .486 .549 55-27(2) 55-27(2) PHX 37-16 .505 .477 .556 54-28(3) 55-27(3) LAL 35-17 .505 .518 .482 57-25(1) 56-26(1) UTA 34-19 .505 .508 .500 53-29(4) 54-28(4) SAS 34-17 .510 .498 .530 53-29(6) 53-29(5) DAL 35-18 .510 .509 .512 54-28(5) 52-30(6) GSW 32-20 .505 .499 .515 50-32(8) 48-34(8) DEN 32-20 .505 .492 .528 49-33(9) 48-34(9) HOU 32-20 .510 .512 .507 51-31(7) 50-32(7) POR 28-24 .505 .524 .472 46-36(10)42-40(10) SOS: average winning percentage of opponents played eSOS: estimated season average SOS cSOS: current SOS (from ESPN Hollinger) rSOS: remaining SOS PJ: math projection purely based on W-L, cSOS, rSOS Ho'PJ: Hollinger's projection 50 wins => playoffs 54 wins => top 4 seed 57 wins => no.1 seed Teams will beat each other after ASB, the actual# may be lower. Anything can happen, go Rockets! .
I don't care about the crappy teams. I don't want a repeat of last year, when we pumped up our record by beating the crappy teams but never beat the good teams, and when we met a good team in the playoffs, it showed. Beat the good teams. That way, when you get to the playoffs, there's actually a reason to think you might win. If you can't beat the good teams, getting to the playoffs really doesn't matter.
