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      23  6 2662 2412 -0.043 13.421    1  0.541    1  0.539    1  0.449    1 0.5624    5  3.729    2  0.619    3  0.279
VALKYRIES 19  8 2211 2062  0.089 13.988    2  0.445    2  0.448    2  0.419    2 0.5545   15  3.522   11 -0.311    1  1.149
ACES      19  9 2549 2421  0.021 13.903    3  0.356    3  0.357    4  0.307    3 0.5433    4  3.741    3  0.528    6  0.086
WINGS     18  9 2436 2327  0.050 13.745    4  0.355    4  0.353    5  0.262    4 0.5423    9  3.698    5  0.289    4  0.235
DREAM     16 10 2323 2217  0.060 13.312    5  0.264    5  0.248    6  0.243    5 0.5311    8  3.712    4  0.331    5  0.154
FEVER     18 10 2683 2514 -0.030 13.282    6  0.260    6  0.238    3  0.375    6 0.5287    1  3.830    1  1.012   12 -0.263
LIBERTY   17 12 2596 2521 -0.011 14.271    7  0.160    7  0.147    7  0.122    7 0.5216    6  3.722    6  0.256    8 -0.013
MYSTICS   15 12 2192 2245 -0.026 13.619    8  0.087    8  0.102    8 -0.118    8 0.5119   14  3.541   15 -0.767    2  0.530
FIRE      11 17 2387 2544 -0.010 14.573    9 -0.207    9 -0.194   12 -0.311    9 0.4756   10  3.693   10 -0.305   13 -0.317
SPARKS    10 17 2404 2540 -0.000 14.101   10 -0.245   10 -0.238   11 -0.305   10 0.4699    3  3.778    8  0.087   14 -0.698
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
MERCURY   10 18 2323 2423  0.006 14.579   11 -0.268   11 -0.272   10 -0.236   12 0.4657   13  3.625   13 -0.532    7  0.060
TEMPO     10 17 2394 2516 -0.057 13.482   12 -0.288   12 -0.285   14 -0.342   11 0.4671    2  3.787    7  0.092   15 -0.777
SKY        9 18 2363 2423 -0.002 13.861   13 -0.314   13 -0.320    9 -0.128   13 0.4635    7  3.716    9 -0.021   11 -0.236
SUN        7 21 2244 2443 -0.074 14.028   14 -0.532   14 -0.530   15 -0.432   14 0.4378   12  3.628   14 -0.714    9 -0.150
STORM      6 24 2470 2629 -0.039 15.336   15 -0.614   15 -0.637   13 -0.334   15 0.4293   11  3.656   12 -0.493   10 -0.175

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      23  6 2662 2412 -0.043 13.421    1  0.541    1  0.539    1  0.449    1 0.5624    5  3.729    2  0.619    3  0.279
VALKYRIES 19  8 2211 2062  0.089 13.988    2  0.445    2  0.448    2  0.419    2 0.5545   15  3.522   11 -0.311    1  1.149
ACES      19  9 2549 2421  0.021 13.903    3  0.356    3  0.357    4  0.307    3 0.5433    4  3.741    3  0.528    6  0.086
WINGS     18  9 2436 2327  0.050 13.745    4  0.355    4  0.353    5  0.262    4 0.5423    9  3.698    5  0.289    4  0.235
FIRE      11 17 2387 2544 -0.010 14.573    9 -0.207    9 -0.194   12 -0.311    9 0.4756   10  3.693   10 -0.305   13 -0.317
SPARKS    10 17 2404 2540 -0.000 14.101   10 -0.245   10 -0.238   11 -0.305   10 0.4699    3  3.778    8  0.087   14 -0.698
MERCURY   10 18 2323 2423  0.006 14.579   11 -0.268   11 -0.272   10 -0.236   12 0.4657   13  3.625   13 -0.532    7  0.060
STORM      6 24 2470 2629 -0.039 15.336   15 -0.614   15 -0.637   13 -0.334   15 0.4293   11  3.656   12 -0.493   10 -0.175

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     16 10 2323 2217  0.060 13.312    5  0.264    5  0.248    6  0.243    5 0.5311    8  3.712    4  0.331    5  0.154
FEVER     18 10 2683 2514 -0.030 13.282    6  0.260    6  0.238    3  0.375    6 0.5287    1  3.830    1  1.012   12 -0.263
LIBERTY   17 12 2596 2521 -0.011 14.271    7  0.160    7  0.147    7  0.122    7 0.5216    6  3.722    6  0.256    8 -0.013
MYSTICS   15 12 2192 2245 -0.026 13.619    8  0.087    8  0.102    8 -0.118    8 0.5119   14  3.541   15 -0.767    2  0.530
TEMPO     10 17 2394 2516 -0.057 13.482   12 -0.288   12 -0.285   14 -0.342   11 0.4671    2  3.787    7  0.092   15 -0.777
SKY        9 18 2363 2423 -0.002 13.861   13 -0.314   13 -0.320    9 -0.128   13 0.4635    7  3.716    9 -0.021   11 -0.236
SUN        7 21 2244 2443 -0.074 14.028   14 -0.532   14 -0.530   15 -0.432   14 0.4378   12  3.628   14 -0.714    9 -0.150

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 116 108 0.518    1  0.049
EASTERN CONFERENCE  92 100 0.479    2 -0.061

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.338 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: Wed Jul 29 05:30:08 2026
games through: Tue Jul 28 2026

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