Hit Me With the Digits

Latest WNBA stats as we near the midway point of the season ...

OFFENSIVE RATING

Team          ORating
---------------------
Seattle         104.5
Phoenix         103.4
Indiana         103.3
Los Angeles      97.9
Detroit          97.3
Minnesota        97.1
Washington       97.0
Sacramento       97.0
Chicago          96.8
Connecticut      96.2
San Antonio      95.7
Houston          94.2
New York         93.4

What a strange distribution. There are three elite offensive teams in the league - the Storm, Phoenix and Indiana. Then the difference between them and anyone else is larger than the difference between fourth and 13th (last).

New York's offense is really struggling. The Liberty miss Erin Thorn's outside shooting very, very, very badly right now. Los Angeles was part of the elite group when we last did this exercise two weeks ago. The Sparks miss Chamique Holdsclaw, but unlike Thorn, she's not coming back.

DEFENSIVE RATING

Team          DRating
---------------------
Sacramento       90.6
Indiana          90.9
Detroit          92.6
San Antonio      95.1
New York         96.3
Seattle          99.2
Connecticut      99.2
Chicago          99.2
Phoenix          99.3
Los Angeles      99.8
Washington      101.0
Minnesota       104.4
Houston         105.1

Another strange distribution. There are several distinct groups. Sacramento and Indiana are elite, Detroit is a slight bit off that pace, San Antonio and New York are above-average and Minnesota and Houston are bad. Everyone else is right about the same. The Storm's Defensive Rating has shown tremendous improvement since the last time we looked at these numbers. Holding New York to 53 points has a way of doing that.

POINT DIFFERENTIAL

Again, the standings based on expected wins (as calculated from point differential):

WEST          ExpW   EAST          ExpW
------------------   ------------------
Sacramento    22.3   Indiana       26.3
Seattle       20.4   Detroit       21.5
Phoenix       20.2   Chicago       14.5
San Antonio   17.4   Connecticut   14.2
Los Angeles   15.8   New York      14.1
Minnesota     12.9   Washington    13.9
Houston        8.3

The Fever is far and away the league's top team with Detroit slipping lately. In the East, while the official standings show Washington and Connecticut well back off the back, differential shows them as right with Chicago and New York.

Of course, it's worth noting that one lopsided victory can have a big impact on point differential.