Dolphin Ratings - Women's National Basketball Association

Explanation: Each team is listed with its record, overall score differential, and its ratings. Brief explanations of the ratings follow.

Schedule The number in this column is the effective opponent strength of a team. In other words, they would be expected to have the same record had they played all games against an opponent of this predictive rating at a neutral site. Because this calculation depends on the strength of the team in question, it is not possible to rank schedules using these values.
Expected Losses For college teams, this number is the number of losses an average ranked (top 15 hockey; otherwise top 25) team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. For pro teams, this is the number of losses an average team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. Unlike the schedule ranking, this value can be used to rank schedules.
Standard Ranks teams in an order such that a team is "probably better" than all teams ranked lower than it. This calculation uses margin of victory only for computing a team's opponents strengths; the team's rating itself is computed using only wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule
Median Likelihood Determines the likely ratings for each team, based on its wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule. This generally produces the same or similar ratings as the standard ranking.
Predictive Both schedule strength and rating vs. schedule strength are determined considering both the wins and losses and the score differentials. This rating contains none of the biases in the standard rating, but does weight recent games slightly more than past games since those are a better indication of the team's current strength. This rating is the best of the first three for seeing how good teams are, and thus is the best for predicting future results.
Improved RPI Rating The improved RPI formula is similar to the standard RPI, except that the schedule strength is carried out to infinite depth instead of ending with opponents' opponents, thus allows for a better comparison of isolated groups of teams than is given by the standard RPI calculation. It is similar to the simple rating, except that all games are given equal weight.
Scoring. This value indicates how many points a team would be expected to score if it played an identical team.
Offense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team scores. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to score the league average number of points. This does not necessarily rate a team's offensive abilities, as a fast pace in basketball or big-play defense in football can make a team score more points.
Defense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team allows. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to allow the league average number of points. The same caveat in the predictive-offense rating applies here.

In order to increase early-season stability, the three main rankings, the improved RPI, and the college pseudopoll include priors based on the previous season final predictive ratings and occasionally incorporating preseason predictions of various major publications. The other rankings for college sports do not include priors, and thus can be wildly unstable early in the year. A team whose rankings are affected by this prior is noted with a P following its rankings.

Full Ranking

                                          STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
LYNX      12  3 1396 1195  0.214  7.711    1  0.721    1  0.725    1  1.039    1 0.5658    5  3.705    1  1.179    1  0.900
DREAM      9  4 1132 1049  0.265  7.139    2  0.518    2  0.553    2  0.552    2 0.5508   10  3.641    5  0.404    3  0.701 P
ACES      11  4 1349 1298  0.036  7.399    3  0.491    3  0.534    7  0.230    3 0.5443    2  3.755    2  0.594    9 -0.135
WINGS      9  6 1314 1241  0.295  8.608    4  0.413    4  0.381    3  0.540    5 0.5363    7  3.678    4  0.555    4  0.525
LIBERTY   11  4 1334 1235 -0.129  6.365    6  0.388    5  0.365    5  0.317    4 0.5365    6  3.688    6  0.378    5  0.255
VALKYRIES 10  5 1276 1176  0.063  7.297    5  0.402    6  0.360    4  0.481    6 0.5290   14  3.602    7  0.163    2  0.798
FEVER      9  5 1282 1214 -0.056  6.393    7  0.250    7  0.227    6  0.248    7 0.5226    3  3.744    3  0.562    7 -0.066
FIRE       8  9 1398 1497 -0.032  8.976    8 -0.046    8 -0.015   13 -0.384    8 0.4890    8  3.673   12 -0.390   12 -0.377
SPARKS     7  8 1316 1364 -0.084  7.378    9 -0.127    9 -0.122   10 -0.243    9 0.4844    4  3.738    9  0.042   13 -0.529
MYSTICS    6  7 1065 1121 -0.162  6.122   10 -0.177   10 -0.161   12 -0.382   10 0.4741   13  3.611   13 -0.658    8 -0.107 P
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
TEMPO      7  8 1332 1369 -0.238  6.472   11 -0.248   11 -0.232   11 -0.331   11 0.4683    1  3.775    8  0.126   15 -0.788
SKY        4 10 1163 1237  0.126  8.104   12 -0.309   12 -0.284    9 -0.231   12 0.4550    9  3.666   10 -0.267   10 -0.195
MERCURY    4 12 1309 1388  0.157  9.314   13 -0.416   13 -0.420    8 -0.202   13 0.4515   11  3.635   11 -0.375    6 -0.029
STORM      3 13 1235 1341 -0.287  7.197   14 -0.859   14 -0.888   14 -0.627   14 0.4047   15  3.578   14 -1.044   11 -0.210
SUN        2 14 1249 1425 -0.259  7.397   15 -1.001   15 -0.988   15 -0.880   15 0.3961   12  3.630   15 -1.074   14 -0.687

WESTERN CONFERENCE
                                          STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
LYNX      12  3 1396 1195  0.214  7.711    1  0.721    1  0.725    1  1.039    1 0.5658    5  3.705    1  1.179    1  0.900
ACES      11  4 1349 1298  0.036  7.399    3  0.491    3  0.534    7  0.230    3 0.5443    2  3.755    2  0.594    9 -0.135
WINGS      9  6 1314 1241  0.295  8.608    4  0.413    4  0.381    3  0.540    5 0.5363    7  3.678    4  0.555    4  0.525
VALKYRIES 10  5 1276 1176  0.063  7.297    5  0.402    6  0.360    4  0.481    6 0.5290   14  3.602    7  0.163    2  0.798
FIRE       8  9 1398 1497 -0.032  8.976    8 -0.046    8 -0.015   13 -0.384    8 0.4890    8  3.673   12 -0.390   12 -0.377
SPARKS     7  8 1316 1364 -0.084  7.378    9 -0.127    9 -0.122   10 -0.243    9 0.4844    4  3.738    9  0.042   13 -0.529
MERCURY    4 12 1309 1388  0.157  9.314   13 -0.416   13 -0.420    8 -0.202   13 0.4515   11  3.635   11 -0.375    6 -0.029
STORM      3 13 1235 1341 -0.287  7.197   14 -0.859   14 -0.888   14 -0.627   14 0.4047   15  3.578   14 -1.044   11 -0.210

EASTERN CONFERENCE
                                          STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
DREAM      9  4 1132 1049  0.265  7.139    2  0.518    2  0.553    2  0.552    2 0.5508   10  3.641    5  0.404    3  0.701 P
LIBERTY   11  4 1334 1235 -0.129  6.365    6  0.388    5  0.365    5  0.317    4 0.5365    6  3.688    6  0.378    5  0.255
FEVER      9  5 1282 1214 -0.056  6.393    7  0.250    7  0.227    6  0.248    7 0.5226    3  3.744    3  0.562    7 -0.066
MYSTICS    6  7 1065 1121 -0.162  6.122   10 -0.177   10 -0.161   12 -0.382   10 0.4741   13  3.611   13 -0.658    8 -0.107 P
TEMPO      7  8 1332 1369 -0.238  6.472   11 -0.248   11 -0.232   11 -0.331   11 0.4683    1  3.775    8  0.126   15 -0.788
SKY        4 10 1163 1237  0.126  8.104   12 -0.309   12 -0.284    9 -0.231   12 0.4550    9  3.666   10 -0.267   10 -0.195
SUN        2 14 1249 1425 -0.259  7.397   15 -1.001   15 -0.988   15 -0.880   15 0.3961   12  3.630   15 -1.074   14 -0.687

DIVISION            W  L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 64 60 0.516    1  0.114
EASTERN CONFERENCE 48 52 0.480    2 -0.113

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.333 points in main ratings (0.226 for semineutral)
     0.033 points in improved RPI (0.023 for semineutral)
Average of 2.15 points per score

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Thu Jun 18 05:30:07 2026
games through: Wed Jun 17 2026

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