A sweet Jazz tune. Utah top the weekly rankings.

Weekly Rankings

This week’s NBA has seen a few of the big ticket teams hit hurdles, whilst some teams picked by analysts to run deep into the post-season are starting to click.

This week has seen the Dallas Mavericks break a November record, going 11-3 and 4-0 in the past week. This was Dallas' highest winning percentage in any month in which it played 10 or more games since the Mavs posted an identical record in January 2008. The Tyson Chandler acquisition is really starting to pay off, despite it putting Brendan Haywood’s nose out of joint. Also Shawn Marion is starting to find his niche from coming off the bench to produce good numbers.

San Antonio remain strong with their only loss in the last week coming to the hot streaking Mavericks. The Spurs are doing all this with Tim Duncan only averaging 28 minutes per game and 14 points production. The deep bench and Ginobli factor remains strong.

However the number 1 team this week is Utah. Utah have made an unhealthy habit this season of come from behind wins, with the Clippers the latest team to fall into the trap of getting ahead by 10+ points only to be reeled in by the streaking Jazz. Only the Milwaukee Bucks of late have not had a strong lead against the Jazz and this saw a blowout by the Jazz of 21 points – 109-88. Jerry Sloan’s system just keeps this team chugging along and ensures that no matter the climate conditions of a game, if the system is adhered to, it will prevail.

The big sliders this week are the LA Lakers falling from their number 1 perch. This is because the lack of depth on the front court which was deemed at the start of the year as too big too fail. However with Bynum not coming back in a hurry Gasol and Odom are playing big minutes and being exposed now – as evidenced by 3 straight losses. Even 1 to the lowly Memphis Grizzlies.

Miami also have slid down to the number 9 after a week of struggles both on the court and in the dressing room. The fact is two stars in LeBron and Wade need the ball in their hands going 1-on-1 on their opponent and not facilitating. This creates havoc. ESPN has the duo ranked 18^th in the league for the best tandem going around based on production.

Milwaukee have also dropped a whopping 8 spots. With Bogut not getting on the court due to a variety of ailments and their offensive system less creative than ever, this team looks destined to be one of the biggest disappointments for the 2010-11 season.

To further educate our readers at Sports Analytics we will recap on the formula we have been using for our ranking system, combined with some alterations to further enhance the deep analytics.

Stat	Why measure this statistic?	Weighting Factor
Points per game by team:	How offensively potent are the team	(Pts for – Pts Against) * 10
Opposition points per game	Are they defending well in the hot spot?
Field Goal percentage	Are they making the most of their opportunities?	(FG % - FGA %) *10
Opposition Field Goal percentage	Are they defending well and preventing second chance points?
Points Differential:	Offense compared to defense?	(Pts for – Pts Against) * 10
# of players per team average above 17.5 points per game:	Do they have prime scorers?	Count # * 10
# of players per team average between 7.5 to 17.5 points per game:	Do they have role players that can score?	Count # * 10
# of players rebounding more than 6 rebounds per game:	Are they well served on the glass?	Count # * 15
# of rotation players playing above 22.5 minutes a game:	How big is the team’s dependency?	Count # * 5
# of rotation players playing above 8.5 minutes a game and less than 22.5 minutes a game	How deep are this team?	Count # * 5
Team assists per game:	Do they distribute the ball well?	# * 10
Turnovers committed vs. turnovers forced:	Do they not throw the ball away?	( TO comm. – TO forced )*10
Offensive efficiency vs. Defensive efficiency:	How do they stack up at both ends?	(OE – DE)*2
Current Win-Loss ratio:	How are they tracking with Wins?	10 pts per win
Hot Streak	How are they streaking	10 pts per win -10 pts per loss

 

Team Code	PPG	Opp PPG	# avg > 7.5 < 17.5#	avg > 17.5 ppg	# > 6 rpg	# above 22.5 mpg	W	L	Hot Pts	Rating
UTH	101.2	97.9	4	2	2	7	14	5	60	518.990
SAS	107.2	98.9	3	2	1	7	14	2	10	511.620
DAL	97.6	92.7	4	1	2	6	13	4	60	510.560
BOS	100.5	93.3	4	1	1	5	12	4	30	506.210
LAL	109.5	100.3	5	2	2	10	13	5	-30	485.130
ORL	99.1	92.7	4	1	1	6	12	4	30	427.520
MIA	100.4	94.5	2	3	1	10	10	8	10	390.980
NOR	96.5	92.3	5	1	1	7	12	5	-20	382.470
DEN	106	103.6	5	1	1	8	10	6	40	381.460
CHI	101.6	98.5	3	2	3	8	9	6	10	375.450
ATL	100.2	94.5	4	1	2	5	11	7	30	433.210
OKC	102.6	102.8	3	2	1	5	12	6	10	291.230
NYK	106.8	107.2	4	2	2	6	9	9	10	276.840
IND	99.9	96.3	2	1	1	7	8	7	10	273.980
POR	96.3	96.8	3	1	2	7	8	8	-30	258.720
MEM	100.4	101.9	4	1	2	6	7	10	-10	225.860
GSW	101.6	105.8	3	2	1	4	8	9	10	220.850
PHO	109.4	111.9	5	2	0	6	8	9	-10	219.040
CHA	96.6	97.5	4	2	1	7	6	11	-10	190.010
TOR	99.2	101.9	5	1	1	10	6	11	-20	154.510
NJN	92.9	96.2	4	2	1	6	6	11	10	152.360
CLE	95.1	99.6	5	0	1	9	7	9	10	137.390
MIL	91.4	91.9	0	1	1	5	6	11	-10	134.910
HOU	104.4	106.7	2	2	1	5	5	12	-10	106.090
DET	96.6	101.1	4	1	1	6	6	11	-10	94.040
PHI	97.8	100.9	6	0	1	7	4	13	10	93.110
WAS	97.9	104.7	5	0	2	4	5	11	-30	91.860
SAC	94.1	100.4	0	1	2	8	4	11	-40	38.820
LAC	97.7	105.1	2	2	1	9	3	15	-20	-16.270
MIN	101.1	110.2	0	2	1	5	4	13	-40	-84.640

Stay tuned for next with the big changes in rankings sure to continue to come...