The National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league and home to 29 teams based out of the United States, and one based out of Canada. The regular season of the NBA contains 82 games and takes place from October to April. The eastern conference is composed of the atlantic, central, and southeast divisions. And the western conference is composed of the northwest, pacific, and southwest division. Mid-season, the NBA All-Star Weekend takes place including eight special events.
During the offseason is the NBA Draft, the NBA free agency, and the NBA Awards. The NBA Awards shine light on the players selected to the All-NBA teams, All-Rookie Teams, All-Defensive Teams, Sixth Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, NBA MVP, and many more. Most of the visitors will be satisfied browsing the Overview tab.
Here, they will find wins and losses, the best score at home and away, Division and Conference records, and winning percentage for each team. Moreover, there are results of matches that were or will be this month. The purpose of this tab is to show visitors the current state about the basketball season in the USA. To check its history, they should move on standings or results tabs depending on needs.
People are the most interested in NBA basketball scores because it's the most professional league, the most potent team around the world play here. The Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics compete with each other in the Eastern Conference. At the same time, Los Angeles Lakers, LA Clippers, and Denver Nuggets show outstanding playstyle in the Western Conference. The Spurs have been dominant since the division's inaugural season, having won the most Southwest Division titles with nine. The Rockets have won four, the Mavericks have won three, and the Pelicans have won one title.
The Spurs won the NBA championship in 2005, 2007 and 2014, while the Mavericks won in 2011. In the 2007–08 season, all four teams that qualified for the playoffs each had more than 50 wins. In the 2010–11 season and the 2014–15 season, all teams in the division had winning percentages above 0.500 (50%).
In the 2014–15 season, the Southwest Division saw every one of its teams making the playoffs, a feat achieved only twice in the last 30 years. With fewer teams making the playoffs in baseball and football, the rounding down into a smaller group battling among themselves for a playoff spot is fun. If a team has a rival within their division it is likely happenstance and the real rivalry comes from historically significant games in the playoffs. The LeBron James Cavaliers and Paul George/Lance Stephenson Pacers come to mind as a recent example, as do Kobe's Lakers and Steve Nash's Suns . The NBA was officially formed in 1949, merging two smaller leagues. Upon the merger, the league was dominated by Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics.
In 1969 the NBA logo was designed, modeling the silhouette of Hall of Famer Jerry West. In 1979, rookies Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were drafted, confirming the lifetime rivalry between their two respected teams. In 1984 Michael Jordan was drafted, but the late 80s were dominated by the Detroit Pistons and the Bad Boys era. In the late 2000s, the Lakers-Celtics rivalry continued in the NBA Finals twice. The Celtics remain the winningest franchise in the NBA with 17 total championships, followed by the Lakers' 16. With constant roster regroupings, younger players like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Dwight Howard, and James Harden became the faces of the NBA, ending and starting yet another era.
In response to years of backlash, this loophole was eliminated in 2015. Today, playoff seeding is decided by conference standings, making divisions largely irrelevant. The only implication that persists is one additional regular season matchup.
At the time, it was a consequential aspect of the league's composition. Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in opposite conference . Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in own conference . The Rockets trail No. 4 Utah by two games, which means they could cut the deficit in half with a win in their second game after the All-Star break. Since eight teams make the playoffs in each conference, getting into the top four assures home-court advantage in at least one round.
Below are the NBA standings currently, along with projected record , point differential and odds to win the title, conference and division. Read below to see each team's current record, projected record and point differential, along with odds to win the title, conference and division. /standings $NBA Team Standings & Stats | NBA.com The standings and stats of the current NBA a season. Keep track of how your favorite teams are performing and who will make the playoffs.
Going by current winning percentage, the Rockets have the easiest remaining schedule of any current West playoff team. The Nuggets, who currently hold the No. 2 seed, have the hardest schedule by winning percentage of any team in the West's top seven spots. Westbrook is also going to make the team much better in the regular season as well. While there are some rotation problems that Frank Vogel will have to solve in the playoffs, Westbrook takes stress off of LeBron and will make the Lakers win more games. Inside particular divisions, each team plays four times against their rivals. As for the teams in the same conference, they play against some conference opponents 3 times and twice against the teams from the other conference.
At the same time, divisions are pivotal in the sense that if clubs have equal win-loss records, then the winners of divisions and better record-holders have an advantage in tiebreakers. The San Antonio Spurs have the best all time winning percentage followed by the Lakers and the Celtics . Of the current teams, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Los Angeles Clippers have the worst records. By the time the dust settled on last season, the Pelicans had won 48 games.
They wound up with the Western Conference's sixth seed and swept the Blazers in the first round of the playoffs. The Wolves, on the other hand, won 47 games and were blown out by the first-seeded Rockets. All five teams currently have between 13 and 16 wins, and yet the Rockets are still sizable -140 favorites (58.3% implied probability) to win the division. Despite the start, FiveThirtyEight still projects them for 49 wins.
Heading into the final stretch of this regular season, the playoffs seem like a far-off dream for the men in blue. They are 9 games behind the eighth seed Clippers, and a whopping 11 games below their division leaders. Each of the tied teams has a different winning percentage or point differential under the applicable tie-break criterion (a "complete" breaking of the tie). Winning a particular division is not as massively celebrated as winning a specific conference, but it is always motivating to beat other teams and clinch the first title. In this article, we will talk more about each division and teams that are playing inside. I was extremely low on the Blazers last year and, in ways, they proved me wrong.
However, I feel somewhat justified in my caping for the Wolves to catch them in the first round last year by the way Portland flamed out in round one. The Blazers got swept by the Pelicans because there is a litany of holes in that team that surrounds a few elite-level talents. I believe those holes are exposed again this year but, still, I would be surprised if that means they lose more games than they win. Give me the over barely, while still finishing with the fewest wins in the division. Outside of the Wolves, the rest of the Northwest Division won 191 games (58.2 percent). If you were to put a replacement-level team in the Wolves' spot, they would — mathematically — have about a 41.8 (1 – .582) percent chance of winning each inter-division contest.
Since that hypothetical group would have to play their excess games against four above average teams, they would be at a relative disadvantage. Of those four matchups, they could be expected to win 1.66 (4 x .418). The league realigned itself into three divisions in each conference. The Southwest Division began with five inaugural members, the Mavericks, the Rockets, the Grizzlies, the Hornets and the Spurs.
The Mavericks, the Rockets, the Grizzlies and the Spurs joined from the now-defunct Midwest Division, while the Pelicans joined from the Central Division. More importantly, because the Rockets and Jazz only play three times, the winner of that Feb. 22 game in Salt Lake City will secure the season series and potential tiebreaker between the teams. Both Houston and Utah have now won on the other's home floor following Bojan Bogdanovic's shocking buzzer-beater at Toyota Center earlier this week. With approximately 20 games left to play, teams continue shifting around in the standings with each passing night, setting the stage for an unpredictable finish. That leaves fans thinking of hypothetical first-round matchups in the conference, and given the current outlook on the standings, there are several that could be fascinating. The league is divided up into two conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference.
The Eastern conference has three divisions called Atlantic, Central, and Southeast. The Western conference also has three divisions, which are the Northwest, Pacific, and Southwest. Still, I don't think you're treating these teams too much like random variables. My assumption is that the Western Conference will have nine or 10 teams competing for a playoff spot as the regular season winds down. But I agree with you – which teams that is will be decided by unpredictable variables. The Last 10 column is clear-cut, just the record of the last 10 games for each team.
The most resourceful feature is the Streaks, which shows you how many consecutive wins or losses a team currently has. Riding a team on a heater or a winning streak is never a bad idea nor is fading a club mired in a losing skid. Looks at the opponents for your remaining games, their winning percentage on the road or at home, and whether or not either team is on the second night of a back to back. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 82-game regular season schedule was cancelled on March 11, 2020.
The season was restarted on July 30 under an eight-game seeding format in the 2020 NBA Bubble to conclude the regular season and determine playoff berths. Games were played inside the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Because of a lockout, the season did not start until December 25, 2011, and all 30 teams played a shortened 66-game regular season schedule.
Currently, the Clippers rank fifth in the Western Conference standings and trail the first-seed Golden State Warriors by 9.5 games. There is only 1.5 games separating the Clippers from the Denver Nuggets while teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, and Minnesota Timberwolves each are just two games back. Thus, whether the Rockets can hold off Dallas could prove critical in not only being ahead of the Mavs in the standings, but also with potential tiebreakers involving other teams. The Rockets and Mavs, who have split their two games so far, play March 23 and Apr. 7, both in Dallas.
The Rockets also have an easier schedule on paper than No. 6 Oklahoma City and No. 7 Dallas, who are currently just two games behind Houston in the loss column. In particular, Houston needs to hold off the Mavericks, since winning the Southwest Division could give the Rockets a significant boost in potential tiebreaker scenarios. Of the four teams in front of Houston in the West, two of them lost their final games heading into the All-Star break.
Denver (38-17) lost at home Wednesday to the Lakers, while the Clippers (37-18) lost Thursday at Boston. That brings the Rockets within two games in the loss column of the No. 3 seed, and three games of the No. 2 seed. If the Mavericks were to handle their business in the NBA's new play-in tournament format, they would play the Suns in the first round if the playoffs started today.
This would be a heavyweight matchup headlined by a pair of young stars in Luka Doncic and Devin Booker. These two have been having fantastic seasons, and seeing these two All-Stars battle it out head to head in a seven-game series would be must-see television. I think the Thunder are going to be a brutal regular season foe. With Paul George and a healthy Andre Roberson on the wing, alongside Steven Adams down low, their starting unit's defense has the ability to rank among the league's best. Combine that with Russell Westbrook's offensive ferocity – and George alone as his side-kick – plus the addition of Schroder for depth, this should be a very tough team. As I said before, 44.5 is way too low for even a fringe playoff team, and the Wolves are that at a minimum.
If Minnesota's second-unit can be even average, that's a small handful of wins right there. Easily the league's most uninspiring division, the Southeast features the Hornets as the current favorite at +120 odds (45.5% implied probability) to win. The Warriors sit second in projected record (58-24) and fifth in point differential (+6.8), but they are still overwhelming favorites to win the title at -155 odds (60.8% implied probability). This team simply has too much star power and too much depth to only win 53 games. While that is still a lot, it is significantly lower than what we predicted in our game-by-game season predictions.
I get that LeBron James is getting up there in age and visually does not care as much about the regular season. However, let's not pretend like Anthony Davis isn't one of the 10 best players in the league and still is not even 30. Meanwhile, the Mavericks were plagued by a slow start this season, looking like they might miss the postseason entirely.
However, they have since rebounded and currently sit at seventh place in the conference with a overall record thanks to some all-around rejuvenating play. Pairing him alongside Devin Booker has turned things around entirely, as the Suns have asserted themselves at second place in the standings by holding a record. The current state of the NBA's Western Conference standings is intensifying with the regular season winding down to what should be a thrilling conclusion.
There have been frequent discussions about expansion in the NBA, which basically means adding more teams in each Conference. If such a thing ever happens, we will likely get 4 divisions instead of 3. There is also an idea that the divisions could mix with each conference but so far no official statements have been made. In a nutshell, an expansion would significantly impact the current status and structure of divisions. The Pacers are second with 4-1 odds to win the division, and they did just get star Victor Oladipo back from injury this week. The NBA's most loaded division, all five teams are currently projected to reach 40 wins this year.
The defending champs are currently (97.2% implied probability) to win the Pacific Division. They're currently projected for 13 more wins than any of the other four teams. They currently own the East's third-highest point differential (+6.9) and second-best odds to win the conference (+230). Currently, this division boasts of just two possible playoff-worthy teams in San Antonio and Houston . Rest of the residents have just been mere spectators, providing little-to-no resistance all throughout the season.
The Eastern Conference was technically created in 1946 with six teams but the conference finals began in the 1971 season. The Boston Celtics have captured the most East titles with nine, there last championship coming in 2010. The Chicago Bulls have won six but the last title came for that franchise in 1998. The Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers both have five championships each and future NBA Hall of Famer LeBron James has helped those teams capture nine of them. Does not result in the breaking of a tie, the playoff positions of the tied teams will be determined by a random drawing. Houston likely needs to win at least one of those games, since allowing the Mavs to take both would give them the head-to-head tiebreaker versus the Rockets while also making up the current two-game gap.
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