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      29  7 3334 3018 -0.033 16.856    1  0.631    1  0.616    1  0.513    1 0.5670    6  3.728    2  0.657    3  0.369
VALKYRIES 25  9 2835 2608  0.044 16.997    2  0.530    2  0.518    2  0.507    2 0.5578   15  3.533   11 -0.193    1  1.207
ACES      24 13 3345 3228  0.070 19.290    3  0.371    3  0.367    5  0.255    3 0.5423    4  3.734    3  0.428    6  0.082
FEVER     23 12 3368 3162  0.020 17.326    4  0.348    4  0.329    3  0.425    4 0.5367    1  3.820    1  0.998    9 -0.148
DREAM     21 13 3062 2916  0.024 16.969    5  0.264    5  0.252    4  0.262    5 0.5280    8  3.716    4  0.354    4  0.170
LIBERTY   23 14 3346 3219 -0.036 17.808    6  0.229    6  0.216    6  0.190    6 0.5254    5  3.730    5  0.344    7  0.035
MYSTICS   20 14 2775 2800  0.008 17.416    7  0.188    7  0.197    8  0.013    7 0.5222   14  3.541   14 -0.653    2  0.679
WINGS     20 16 3184 3110  0.068 18.821    8  0.176    8  0.165    7  0.130    8 0.5199   10  3.697    6  0.136    5  0.124
FIRE      15 20 3036 3190 -0.047 17.616    9 -0.180    9 -0.171   10 -0.262    9 0.4792    9  3.713   10 -0.186   13 -0.338
SKY       13 22 3064 3146 -0.046 17.442   10 -0.288   11 -0.300    9 -0.198   11 0.4661    7  3.723    9 -0.073   12 -0.323
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SPARKS    12 22 3003 3161 -0.007 17.647   11 -0.297   10 -0.296   12 -0.294   10 0.4667    3  3.768    7  0.034   14 -0.623
MERCURY   13 23 3020 3148 -0.026 18.337   12 -0.302   12 -0.309   11 -0.283   12 0.4655   12  3.657   12 -0.457    8 -0.109
TEMPO     10 23 2892 3106 -0.003 17.371   13 -0.409   13 -0.411   14 -0.465   13 0.4564    2  3.791    8 -0.029   15 -0.902
SUN        8 25 2614 2878 -0.056 16.800   14 -0.570   14 -0.571   15 -0.541   14 0.4366   13  3.610   15 -0.918   10 -0.164
STORM      7 30 3080 3268 -0.047 18.734   15 -0.690   15 -0.723   13 -0.347   15 0.4251   11  3.668   13 -0.471   11 -0.223

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      29  7 3334 3018 -0.033 16.856    1  0.631    1  0.616    1  0.513    1 0.5670    6  3.728    2  0.657    3  0.369
VALKYRIES 25  9 2835 2608  0.044 16.997    2  0.530    2  0.518    2  0.507    2 0.5578   15  3.533   11 -0.193    1  1.207
ACES      24 13 3345 3228  0.070 19.290    3  0.371    3  0.367    5  0.255    3 0.5423    4  3.734    3  0.428    6  0.082
WINGS     20 16 3184 3110  0.068 18.821    8  0.176    8  0.165    7  0.130    8 0.5199   10  3.697    6  0.136    5  0.124
FIRE      15 20 3036 3190 -0.047 17.616    9 -0.180    9 -0.171   10 -0.262    9 0.4792    9  3.713   10 -0.186   13 -0.338
SPARKS    12 22 3003 3161 -0.007 17.647   11 -0.297   10 -0.296   12 -0.294   10 0.4667    3  3.768    7  0.034   14 -0.623
MERCURY   13 23 3020 3148 -0.026 18.337   12 -0.302   12 -0.309   11 -0.283   12 0.4655   12  3.657   12 -0.457    8 -0.109
STORM      7 30 3080 3268 -0.047 18.734   15 -0.690   15 -0.723   13 -0.347   15 0.4251   11  3.668   13 -0.471   11 -0.223

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     23 12 3368 3162  0.020 17.326    4  0.348    4  0.329    3  0.425    4 0.5367    1  3.820    1  0.998    9 -0.148
DREAM     21 13 3062 2916  0.024 16.969    5  0.264    5  0.252    4  0.262    5 0.5280    8  3.716    4  0.354    4  0.170
LIBERTY   23 14 3346 3219 -0.036 17.808    6  0.229    6  0.216    6  0.190    6 0.5254    5  3.730    5  0.344    7  0.035
MYSTICS   20 14 2775 2800  0.008 17.416    7  0.188    7  0.197    8  0.013    7 0.5222   14  3.541   14 -0.653    2  0.679
SKY       13 22 3064 3146 -0.046 17.442   10 -0.288   11 -0.300    9 -0.198   11 0.4661    7  3.723    9 -0.073   12 -0.323
TEMPO     10 23 2892 3106 -0.003 17.371   13 -0.409   13 -0.411   14 -0.465   13 0.4564    2  3.791    8 -0.029   15 -0.902
SUN        8 25 2614 2878 -0.056 16.800   14 -0.570   14 -0.571   15 -0.541   14 0.4366   13  3.610   15 -0.918   10 -0.164

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 145 140 0.509    1  0.037
EASTERN CONFERENCE 118 123 0.490    2 -0.061

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.337 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: Tue Aug 18 05:30:09 2026
games through: Mon Aug 17 2026

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