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      25  7 2956 2673 -0.050 14.671    1  0.533    1  0.522    1  0.475    1 0.5594    7  3.724    2  0.594    3  0.355
VALKYRIES 21  9 2488 2313  0.046 14.983    2  0.433    2  0.424    2  0.407    2 0.5503   15  3.535   11 -0.291    1  1.106
ACES      22 10 2931 2775  0.047 16.167    3  0.416    3  0.407    3  0.369    3 0.5469    5  3.732    3  0.525    5  0.213
FEVER     19 12 2979 2806 -0.001 15.021    6  0.221    6  0.209    4  0.366    6 0.5253    1  3.826    1  0.962   11 -0.229
WINGS     19 12 2767 2649  0.027 15.494    5  0.248    5  0.238    5  0.233    5 0.5299   10  3.690    6  0.202    4  0.264
DREAM     19 11 2686 2578  0.046 15.225    4  0.301    4  0.291    6  0.209    4 0.5332    8  3.719    4  0.310    6  0.109
LIBERTY   20 13 2976 2886 -0.030 15.949    7  0.184    7  0.181    7  0.123    7 0.5222    4  3.735    5  0.295    8 -0.048
MYSTICS   17 12 2369 2412 -0.012 14.666    8  0.153    8  0.173    8 -0.061    8 0.5197   14  3.549   14 -0.702    2  0.579
SKY       12 19 2737 2788 -0.031 15.461   11 -0.233   12 -0.245    9 -0.112   11 0.4727    6  3.727    8  0.021   12 -0.246
MERCURY   12 20 2694 2803  0.031 16.856   10 -0.217   10 -0.224   10 -0.202   12 0.4718   12  3.654   12 -0.393    7 -0.012
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SPARKS    12 18 2687 2818 -0.004 15.516    9 -0.188    9 -0.186   11 -0.254    9 0.4767    3  3.780    7  0.124   14 -0.631
FIRE      12 19 2683 2845 -0.025 15.855   12 -0.240   11 -0.228   12 -0.300   10 0.4730    9  3.709   10 -0.245   13 -0.355
STORM      6 27 2728 2914 -0.018 17.055   15 -0.659   15 -0.690   13 -0.353   15 0.4264   11  3.661   13 -0.514   10 -0.193
TEMPO     10 21 2709 2905 -0.022 16.008   13 -0.378   13 -0.369   14 -0.473   13 0.4605    2  3.783    9 -0.080   15 -0.866
SUN        7 23 2395 2620 -0.065 15.083   14 -0.574   14 -0.574   15 -0.478   14 0.4339   13  3.619   15 -0.822    9 -0.135

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      25  7 2956 2673 -0.050 14.671    1  0.533    1  0.522    1  0.475    1 0.5594    7  3.724    2  0.594    3  0.355
VALKYRIES 21  9 2488 2313  0.046 14.983    2  0.433    2  0.424    2  0.407    2 0.5503   15  3.535   11 -0.291    1  1.106
ACES      22 10 2931 2775  0.047 16.167    3  0.416    3  0.407    3  0.369    3 0.5469    5  3.732    3  0.525    5  0.213
WINGS     19 12 2767 2649  0.027 15.494    5  0.248    5  0.238    5  0.233    5 0.5299   10  3.690    6  0.202    4  0.264
MERCURY   12 20 2694 2803  0.031 16.856   10 -0.217   10 -0.224   10 -0.202   12 0.4718   12  3.654   12 -0.393    7 -0.012
SPARKS    12 18 2687 2818 -0.004 15.516    9 -0.188    9 -0.186   11 -0.254    9 0.4767    3  3.780    7  0.124   14 -0.631
FIRE      12 19 2683 2845 -0.025 15.855   12 -0.240   11 -0.228   12 -0.300   10 0.4730    9  3.709   10 -0.245   13 -0.355
STORM      6 27 2728 2914 -0.018 17.055   15 -0.659   15 -0.690   13 -0.353   15 0.4264   11  3.661   13 -0.514   10 -0.193

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
FEVER     19 12 2979 2806 -0.001 15.021    6  0.221    6  0.209    4  0.366    6 0.5253    1  3.826    1  0.962   11 -0.229
DREAM     19 11 2686 2578  0.046 15.225    4  0.301    4  0.291    6  0.209    4 0.5332    8  3.719    4  0.310    6  0.109
LIBERTY   20 13 2976 2886 -0.030 15.949    7  0.184    7  0.181    7  0.123    7 0.5222    4  3.735    5  0.295    8 -0.048
MYSTICS   17 12 2369 2412 -0.012 14.666    8  0.153    8  0.173    8 -0.061    8 0.5197   14  3.549   14 -0.702    2  0.579
SKY       12 19 2737 2788 -0.031 15.461   11 -0.233   12 -0.245    9 -0.112   11 0.4727    6  3.727    8  0.021   12 -0.246
TEMPO     10 21 2709 2905 -0.022 16.008   13 -0.378   13 -0.369   14 -0.473   13 0.4605    2  3.783    9 -0.080   15 -0.866
SUN        7 23 2395 2620 -0.065 15.083   14 -0.574   14 -0.574   15 -0.478   14 0.4339   13  3.619   15 -0.822    9 -0.135

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 129 122 0.514    1  0.061
EASTERN CONFERENCE 104 111 0.484    2 -0.078

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

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Fri Aug  7 05:30:10 2026
games through: Thu Aug  6 2026

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