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
ACES      4 1 455 424 -0.197  1.891    1  0.115    1  0.105    3  0.100    2 0.5389    9  3.699    7  0.106    6  0.094 P
SKY       3 1 336 316  0.177  2.231    2  0.095    2  0.096    7  0.034    1 0.5465   14  3.610   13 -0.351    1  0.420 P
LIBERTY   3 1 400 348 -0.233  1.406    3  0.075    4  0.051    1  0.165    4 0.5346    4  3.740    1  0.359   10 -0.028 P
DREAM     2 1 252 247  0.156  1.649    4  0.070    3  0.059    6  0.042    3 0.5348   12  3.637   11 -0.226    4  0.310 P
VALKYRIES 2 1 249 228  0.121  1.578    5  0.063    5  0.047    5  0.060    5 0.5235   13  3.620   12 -0.282    3  0.402 P
MYSTICS   2 1 265 265  0.118  1.639    6  0.061    6  0.045    9 -0.025    8 0.5125   15  3.597   15 -0.466    2  0.417 P
LYNX      2 2 347 347  0.185  2.234    7  0.052    7  0.030    4  0.076    7 0.5211    7  3.715    5  0.157    9 -0.005 P
MERCURY   2 2 353 332  0.296  2.408    8  0.036    8  0.030    2  0.116    6 0.5220    8  3.704    6  0.145    7  0.087 P
FIRE      1 2 263 294  0.345  1.997    9 -0.012    9 -0.025   12 -0.122    9 0.4894    2  3.777    3  0.244   14 -0.487 P
WINGS     1 2 265 271  0.112  1.659   10 -0.033   11 -0.060   11 -0.076   10 0.4676    6  3.728    8  0.063   11 -0.215 P
TEAM      W L  PF  PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
FEVER     2 2 382 367 -0.263  1.511   11 -0.040   10 -0.057    8 -0.024   11 0.4675    3  3.762    2  0.273   12 -0.321 P
TEMPO     2 2 352 336 -0.378  1.343   12 -0.059   12 -0.080   10 -0.065   12 0.4585   10  3.681   10 -0.137    8  0.007 P
STORM     1 3 320 348 -0.201  1.737   13 -0.121   14 -0.126   13 -0.132   14 0.4320   11  3.645   14 -0.365    5  0.101 P
SPARKS    1 3 351 393 -0.067  1.994   14 -0.124   13 -0.121   14 -0.218   13 0.4329    1  3.783    4  0.175   15 -0.611 P
SUN       0 4 320 394  0.054  2.299   15 -0.177   15 -0.188   15 -0.271   15 0.4147    5  3.731    9 -0.120   13 -0.423 P

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
ACES      4 1 455 424 -0.197  1.891    1  0.115    1  0.105    3  0.100    2 0.5389    9  3.699    7  0.106    6  0.094 P
VALKYRIES 2 1 249 228  0.121  1.578    5  0.063    5  0.047    5  0.060    5 0.5235   13  3.620   12 -0.282    3  0.402 P
LYNX      2 2 347 347  0.185  2.234    7  0.052    7  0.030    4  0.076    7 0.5211    7  3.715    5  0.157    9 -0.005 P
MERCURY   2 2 353 332  0.296  2.408    8  0.036    8  0.030    2  0.116    6 0.5220    8  3.704    6  0.145    7  0.087 P
FIRE      1 2 263 294  0.345  1.997    9 -0.012    9 -0.025   12 -0.122    9 0.4894    2  3.777    3  0.244   14 -0.487 P
WINGS     1 2 265 271  0.112  1.659   10 -0.033   11 -0.060   11 -0.076   10 0.4676    6  3.728    8  0.063   11 -0.215 P
STORM     1 3 320 348 -0.201  1.737   13 -0.121   14 -0.126   13 -0.132   14 0.4320   11  3.645   14 -0.365    5  0.101 P
SPARKS    1 3 351 393 -0.067  1.994   14 -0.124   13 -0.121   14 -0.218   13 0.4329    1  3.783    4  0.175   15 -0.611 P

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
SKY       3 1 336 316  0.177  2.231    2  0.095    2  0.096    7  0.034    1 0.5465   14  3.610   13 -0.351    1  0.420 P
LIBERTY   3 1 400 348 -0.233  1.406    3  0.075    4  0.051    1  0.165    4 0.5346    4  3.740    1  0.359   10 -0.028 P
DREAM     2 1 252 247  0.156  1.649    4  0.070    3  0.059    6  0.042    3 0.5348   12  3.637   11 -0.226    4  0.310 P
MYSTICS   2 1 265 265  0.118  1.639    6  0.061    6  0.045    9 -0.025    8 0.5125   15  3.597   15 -0.466    2  0.417 P
FEVER     2 2 382 367 -0.263  1.511   11 -0.040   10 -0.057    8 -0.024   11 0.4675    3  3.762    2  0.273   12 -0.321 P
TEMPO     2 2 352 336 -0.378  1.343   12 -0.059   12 -0.080   10 -0.065   12 0.4585   10  3.681   10 -0.137    8  0.007 P
SUN       0 4 320 394  0.054  2.299   15 -0.177   15 -0.188   15 -0.271   15 0.4147    5  3.731    9 -0.120   13 -0.423 P

DIVISION            W  L   PCT  RNK RATING
EASTERN CONFERENCE 14 12 0.538    1  0.009
WESTERN CONFERENCE 14 16 0.467    2 -0.022

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: Mon May 18 05:30:06 2026
games through: Sun May 17 2026

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