This bitch puts us #2 and Pacers #1 even though we beat them ( and the thunder and Spurs) while the Pacers have been beaten eastern crap. http://www.nola.com/pelicans/index.ssf/2013/12/post_80.html Does this power ranking chart come from the same asshole? http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/nba-power-rankings-bad-east-article-1.1540041 Finally a sane man. http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/powerRankings Wow, John Hollinger's power rankings can suck my dick. http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/powerrankings
His playoff odds are even more "interesting" (or insulting, if it's possible to be insulted by a formula). He currently has the Pacers with a 30.5% chance of winning the title and the Spurs at 24.7%. He gives the Blazers, who have a better record than the Spurs and have beaten both the Spurs and Pacers head-to-head, a 9.7% chance of winning the title. Yeah, I know it's early and there are a LOT of games to be played, but it's just as early for the Spurs and Pacers. Based on past performance (Spurs making the finals and Pacers taking the Heat to 7 games in the Eastern Conference finals), I can see why a human would favor the more playoff tested teams, but this is a formula. As far as I know, it only takes into consideration current performance. According to Hollinger's own power rankings, we've played a much tougher schedule than the Pacers and only slightly easier than the Spurs - and again, we've beaten both teams head-to-head. Guess he REALLY places a strong emphasis on margin of victory. The good news is, thanks to our blow out win over Utah, our margin of victory is going up. I also think he should consider head-to-head margin of victory. We beat the Spurs by 10 and the Pacers by 4. So, we come out ahead there. The Pacers are currently beating the Spurs by 16 late in the 3rd. If the Pacers end up winning, it will improve their odds of winning the title even more and knock San Antonio's odds down a bit, but not likely enough for us to pass them anytime soon. But, it's just a computer program and Hollinger has been wrong before, many times. That's why they actually play the games - much more fun to watch the real thing than a simulation. BNM
How fucking dare these computer rankings not have Portland clear favorites to win the title. We fucking beat Indiana and we are behind them....WTF? Only Phoenix, Houston and Dallas should be ahead of us apparently?
http://espn.go.com/nba/powerrankings 1 Indiana 20-3 -- Last Week: 1 No matter what happens Wednesday night in Miami -- win or lose, nailbiter or rout -- we promise you one thing: In the world of modern-day analysis, where NBA games often get dissected like NFL games even though our regular season is five times as long, whatever we see will be overblown. 2 Portland 21-4 -- Last Week: 2 Second-best start in team history through 25 games. 100+ points in 12 straight games for the first time since 1993-94 ... which happens to be our first season covering the NBA. And Bill Simmons proclaims Portland his favorite League Pass team. Does anyone even notice the rain these days? 3 Oklahoma City 19-4 -- Last Week: 3 Two of their losses were on the second night of a back-to-back. Westbrook was still out for the Minnesota loss; Ibaka got ejected from the loss to the Clippers. Throw in the progress made by Reggie Jackson and the odd blip from Jeremy Lamb and OKC is feeling more than OK about itself. 4 San Antonio 19-4 2 Last Week: 6 Fret, if you wish, about all the Spurs' losses to quality teams: Portland, OKC, Houston and Indy. Or you could focus on the fact that the Spurs, with Tim Duncan starting to awaken, have scored 100+ points in eight straight games and will set a Pop-era record if they do it three more times. 5 Miami 17-6 1 Last Week: 4 Interesting stat from ESPN colleague Ryan Russillo: LeBron James starts the week ranked 27th in shots per game at 15.3. Crazy ridiculous as it's been to see LeBron (.590) flirt with shooting 60 percent from the floor, it seems fair to wonder: Should 26 guys be shooting more often than he does?
I can accept number 2 since Indy does have a better record, even though they are in an easier conference and we did beat them. What I can't stand is in the past when blazers have a better record than 6 teams ahead of them, so I can't complain at this point. NBA.com has us at #1 for 2 weeks now
Yeah, plus we’ve had the benefit of playing our six toughest games all at home. I’d think about ranking OKC ahead of us, they haven’t lost a home game yet.
I seriously couldn't care less about power rankings. I've been dealing with watching the Ducks bounce around on power rankings for years, so to follow a sport that doesn't matter where people perceive you and only cares about wins and losses is much much nicer. It doesn't matter if we win by 1 point or 30 points. We got the win.
