12.5.10 - Updated Golf Scores and Composite Rankings

Here are the updated Golf Scores through the results of 12.4.10:

Team	Offense	Defense	Reb Diff	Golf Score
Orlando	11	3	2	16
LAL	1	11	7	19
Miami	4	2	14	20
San Antonio	3	8	10	21
Boston	7	1	13	21
Dallas	13	5	11	29
Chicago	20	9	5	34
Indiana	19	7	12	38
New Orleans	18	4	17	39
Toronto	17	22	3	42
Denver	5	15	23	43
Utah	9	10	24	43
Atlanta	10	14	21	45
Oklahoma City	12	18	16	46
New York	8	20	22	50
Phoenix	2	30	30	62

And here are the updated composite rankings:

Team	Golf Score	Win %	Expected Win %	Point Diff.	Eff. Diff.	Sagarin	Hollinger	SRS	Composite Average
San Antonio	4	1	5	3	1	1	2	3	2.5
Boston	5	2.5	4	4	2	3	1	2	2.94
LAL	2	6	2	1	3	8	4	4	3.75
Orlando	1	4	3	5	4	4	6	6	4.13
Miami	3	10.5	1	2	5	7	5	1	4.31
Dallas	6	2.5	6	6	6	2	3	5	4.56
Utah	12	5	7	7	8	5	7	7	7.25
New Orleans	9	7	9	8	7	6	8	8	7.75
Denver	11	8	10	9	11	9	9	9	9.5
Chicago	7	13	14	13	9	10	10	11	10.88
Atlanta	13	10.5	8	10	10	12	12	12	10.94
Indiana	8	15	12	11	12	14	11	10	11.63
Oklahoma City	14	9	13	14	14	11	13	13	12.63
New York	15	12	11	12	13	16	14	19	14
Toronto	10	16	17	15	22	18	16	16	16.25
Phoenix	16	14	20	19	17	13	17	14	16.25

"Golf" Scores and Other Assorted 2010-2011 Team Rankings

For several years now, I have posted about "golf scores" over at LMF.  Basically, I track where the playoff teams rank in three essential categories:  offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency, and rebounding differential.  I add those three rankings to come up with a "golf score" for each playoff team.  For the 2010-2011 season thus far, here are the numbers:

Team	Offense	Defense	Reb Diff	Golf Score
Orlando	8	4	2	14
San Antonio	2	8	8	18
LAL	1	11	7	19
Boston	6	3	15	24
New Orleans	15	1	13	29
Dallas	11	6	12	29
Chicago	21	9	1	31
Miami	5	7	20	32
Indiana	18	5	10	33
Atlanta	4	18	19	41
Oklahoma City	7	20	16	43
Portland	13	17	17	47
Denver	10	13	26	49
Utah	12	10	28	50
New York	9	22	23	54
Cleveland	28	16	22	66

The sample size is still too small to draw too many conclusions about how things will end up, but it's encouraging to see Dallas doing so well defensively.  We'll see, but it doesn't appear to be a fluke to me as I watch the games.

There has been some discussion over the years about how the "golf score" compares to other rankings, either as a predictor of future success or as an accurate ranking of how teams currently stack up.  Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd put together a table that compared it with other well-known rankings (if you see any that I left out that you'd like me to include, let me know and I'll put into the next update that I do).  Also, I've included a composite average of all of the various rankings so that you can see how the Mavs stack up in that respect as well:

Team	Golf Score	Win %	Expected Win %	Point Diff.	Eff. Diff.	Sagarin	Hollinger	SRS	Composite Average
LAL	3	2	1	1	1	4	1	2	1.88
San Antonio	2	1	5	2	3	1	3	1	2.25
Boston	4	4.5	3	3	4	5	2	3	3.56
Orlando	1	4.5	4	4	5	9	8	7	5.31
New Orleans	5	4.5	7	6	6	2	6	6	5.31
Dallas	6	4.5	6	7	7	3	4	5	5.31
Miami	8	13	2	5	2	10	9	4	6.63
Chicago	7	10.5	10	9	8	7	5	11	8.44
Utah	14	7	8	10	14	6	7	10	9.5
Denver	13	10.5	12	11	9	8	10	9	10.31
Indiana	9	14.5	11	8	10	13	11	8	10.56
Atlanta	10	9	9	12	11	15	14	14	11.75
Oklahoma City	11	8	15	13	13	11	12	12	11.88
Portland	12	12	18	14	12	12	13	13	13.25
New York	15	14.5	13	17	15	20	21	22	17.19
Cleveland	16	16	26	26	27	24	25	24	23