Best Record Race (Hawks/Bulls/Warriors):
The first thing that jumps out at me when I look at this table, is that the Hawks and Bulls - 2 of the 3 teams at the top echelon of the race for best record - have two of the easiest 3 records so far. The Hawks have played the Bobcats 4 times and the Celtics once, which have no doubt contributed to their league-leading differential. The Bulls haven't played the WORST teams as much as the Hawks, and have a easier-than-average schedule the rest of the way, but the big winner in this group is the Warriors. Look for the Warriors to take the 1 seed in the West as well as Home-court throughout the playoffs (barring major injury).
Bottom of the West Playoff Race:
Going into Wednesday's sim, the bottom of the West playoff race looked like this:
7. Rockets +0.5 GB
8. Suns --
9. Thunder --
10. Jazz 2 GB
11. Kings 3 GB
The Kings and Jazz have the two toughest strength of schedules the rest of the way in the whole NBA. This is going to make things tough as they try to jump over teams and into the playoff race. Derek Rose may have something to say about this, but I don't know what the Jazz can hang their hats on to catch up. They may need to shake things up or start planning for next season. The Thunder, however, have a much easier schedule remaining than either the Suns or Rockets - so even though it's not reflected in the next sim - I think by the end of the season, the Thunder have a better chance than the teams below them of sneaking in.
Could the T-Wolves be even better?
Sorry for another storyline from out west, but the Eastern Conference division races aren't particularly compelling, nor explained all that much by the SOS...One team, though, that has been very good, and could be even better is the Timberwolves (not pups any more). At 27-9 they have the 2nd best record in the West. They've also had the 4th most difficult schedule, and the 3rd easiest the rest of the way. This is not good news for my Nuggets...
New feature!
You might have noticed a new column on the SOS table: 'Next Sim Opp Win%'. I've added this to try to give an idea of what's going to happen over the next 15 days of the sim calendar. Some notable tough sims include:
Lakers - 67%
Magic - 65%
Nuggets - 64%
Some notable cakewalks include:
Knicks - 35%
Wizards - 39%
Trailblazers - 39%
I'll keep this going every so often throughout the season, but if you have any suggestions on things you'd like to see analyzed with this or similar data, feel free to post below and I'll do my best to include it.
