The “measuring stick” is
explained at the bottom.
No. 1 Phoenix Mercury (6)
[13-week ESPN rating: 1
9-week Abacus rating: 1
6-week Abacus rating: 1
3-week Abacus rating: 2
2013 Abacus Rating: 4]
29-5, .853; 1st seed
West / 1st overall
KK: +12; (13 Road Wins – 1 Home Loss) / No. 1 overall
CQ: +62; (.515 - .453) / No. 1 overall
SPOR-t: +63; (540-499) / No. 3 overall
Abacus Revelation: Tough not to be best in the league when you’re tops offensively
and defensively in both Efficiency and Field Goal shooting. The only areas
where the Mercury grade out poorly are Offensive Rebounding (No. 11) and
forcing Turnovers (No. 10).
No. 2 Minnesota Lynx (8)
[13-week ESPN rating: 2
9-week Abacus rating: 2
6-week Abacus rating: 2
3-week Abacus rating: 1
2013 Abacus Rating: 1]
25-9, .735; 2nd seed
West / 2nd overall
KK: +8; (10 Road Wins – 2 Home Losses) / No. 2 overall
CQ: +45; (.508 - .463) / No. 2 overall
SPOR-t: +53; (552-499) / No. 2 overall
Abacus Revelation: Gotta love the Lynx – model franchise on and off the court. But
you also gotta start to think that their window of championship opportunity
will close in direct proportion to the rise of the dominance of Brittney Griner.
I expect Maya and her crew play with some extra passion this go-round.
No. 3 Atlanta Dream (10)
[13-week ESPN rating: 4
9-week Abacus rating: 2
6-week Abacus rating: 2
3-week Abacus rating: 6
2013 Abacus Rating: 4]
19-15, .559; 1st seed
East / 3rd overall
KK: +2; (6 Road Wins – 4 Home Losses) / No. 3 overall
CQ: +17; (.478 - .461) / No. 3 overall
SPOR-t: +54; (539-485) / No. 1 overall
Abacus Revelation: Atlanta has everything needed to be an elite team – skilled and
athletic bigs, a take-over-the-game star (and perhaps another, tiffany Hayes,
in-training), quality if under-sized guards. Post-All-Star break, they were the
league’s second-worst team in CQ. Confounding!
No. 4 Los Angeles Sparks (19)
[13-week ESPN rating: 8
9-week Abacus rating: 4
6-week Abacus rating: 7
3-week Abacus rating: 5
2013 Abacus Rating: 2]
16-18, .471; 4th seed
West / 4th overall
(tied)
KK: -1; (9 Road Wins – 10 Home Losses) / No. 4 overall
(tied)
CQ: +12; (.484 - .472) / No. 4 overall
SPOR-t: +16; (527-511) / No. 4 overall
Abacus Revelation: The enigmatic Sparks were dead last in successful 3-point shots (89)
and No. 10 in free throw attempts (573).
No. 5 Indiana Fever (25)
[13-week ESPN rating: 6
9-week Abacus rating: 5
6-week Abacus rating: 6
3-week Abacus rating: 7
2013 Abacus Rating: 7]
16-18, .471; 2nd seed
East / 4th overall
(tied)
KK: -1; (9 Road Wins – 10 Home Losses) / No. 4 overall
(tied)
CQ: -12; (.4- .486) / No. 8 overall
SPOR-t: +4; (516-512) / No. 6 overall
Abacus Revelation: The Fever are the third most accurate 3-point shooting team (.346)
in the circuit and are second-best in defending it (.305). Good combination in
today’s game, huh?
No. 6 Washington Mystics (26)
[13-week ESPN rating: 3
9-week Abacus rating: 6
6-week Abacus rating: 9
3-week Abacus rating: 4
2013 Abacus rating: 6]
16-18, .471; 3rd seed
East /4th overall
(tied)
KK: -1; (8 Road Wins – 9 Home Losses) / No. 4 overall (tied)
CQ: -8; (.460 - .468) / No. 6 overall
SPOR-t: -15; (501-516) / No. 9 overall
Abacus Revelation: Though offensively challenged, Coach Mike Thibault’s troops rank
second in Opponent FG% (.412) and third in Opponent 3-point FG’s (144).
No. 7 New York Liberty (30)
[13-week ESPN rating: 9
9-week Abacus rating: 9
6-week Abacus rating: 12
3-week Abacus rating: 10
2013 Abacus Rating: 9]
15-19, .441; 5th seed
East / 8th overall
(tied)
KK: -2; (5 Road Wins – 7 Home Losses) / No. 8 overall (tied)
CQ: -7; (.459 - .4676/ No. 5 overall
SPOR-t: -10; (484-494) / No. 8 overall
Abacus Revelation: Little wonder that a Bill Laimbeer-coached squad would box-out
efficiently, limiting opponents to a league-worst .233 Offensive Rebounding
percentage. The Liberty were above .500 (11-9) in their last 20 games. Are better times on the horizon?
No. 8 San Antonio Stars (32)
[13-week ESPN rating: 7
9-week Abacus rating: 7
6-week Abacus rating: 8
3-week Abacus rating: 8
2013 Abacus Rating: 11]
16-18, .471; 3rd seed
West / 4th overall
(tied)
KK: -1; (8 Road Wins – 9 Home Losses) / No. 4 overall (tied)
CQ: -28; (.472 - .500) / No. 11 overall
SPOR-t: -35; (514-549) / No. 10 overall
Abacus Revelation: The Stars had the fewest (97) missed free throws, the most
successful 3-point FG’s (226) and rank second in combined shooting (including
FT% and 3FG%). Still, as the league grows bigger and more athletic, Appel and
Adams need more help up front.
No. 9 Connecticut Sun (34)
[13-week ESPN rating: 12
9-week Abacus rating: 8
6-week Abacus rating: 4
3-week Abacus rating: 12
2013 Abacus Rating: 12]
13-21, .382; 6th seed
East / 10th overall
KK: -4; (4 Road Wins – 8 Home Losses) / No. 10 overall
CQ: -15; (.467 - .482) / No. 9 overall
SPOR-t: +11; (531-520) / No. 5 overall
Abacus Revelation: The young and pesky Sun rank best in the “hustle” categories of
Offensive Rebounding (3rd) and forcing turnovers (4th). Since
WNBA rookies have little if any prep time for their season, expect better
production from their No. 2 & 3 players in total minutes, A. Thomas and C.
Ogwumike respectively.
No. 10 Chicago Sky (35)
[13-week ESPN rating: 5
9-week Abacus rating: 12
6-week Abacus rating: 10
3-week Abacus rating: 3
2013 Abacus Rating: 3]
15-19, .441; 4th seed
East / 8th overall
(tied)
KK: -2; (6 Road Wins –8Home Losses) / No. 8 overall (tied)
CQ: -10; (.470 - .480) / No. 7 overall
SPOR-t: -48; (492-540) / No. 11 overall
Abacus Revelation: Pokey Chapman’s Sky rank third in both Opponent FG% (.420) and
3-point FG% (.315) .
No. 11 Tulsa Shock (40)
[13-week ESPN rating: 11
9-week Abacus rating: 10
6-week Abacus rating: 5
3-week Abacus rating: 12
2013 Abacus Rating: 9]
12-22, .353; 5th seed
West / 11th overall
(tied)
KK: -5; (4 Road Wins – 9 Home Losses) / No. 11 overall
(tied)
CQ: -20; (.498 - .518) / No. 10 overall
SPOR-t: -6; (567-573) / No. 7 overall
Abacus Revelation: The young and entertaining Shock are third-best in Offensive
Efficiency and No. 1 in Offensive Rebounding and SPOR-t.
No. 12 Seattle Storm (47)
[13-week ESPN rating: 10
9-week Abacus rating: 11
6-week Abacus rating: 11
3-week Abacus rating: 10
2013 Abacus Rating: 8]
12-22, .353; 5th seed
West / 11th overall
(tied)
KK: -5; (4 Road Wins – 9 Home Losses) / No. 11 overall
(tied)
CQ: -41; (.451 - .492) / No. 12 overall
SPOR-t: -95 (442-537) / No. 12 overall
Abacus Revelation: Coach Brian Agler’s crew made the second-most 3-point FG’s and
were third=best in “boxing-out.” Wonder who he’ll want with that first draft
pick?
*
Our team-ranking tool utilizes four elements. Two scales are
based solely on team wins and losses; the others are measures of the efficiency
of team performance in comparison with the competition. First, we’ll simply use
win-loss record irrespective of conference.
The second criterion will be the difference between a team’s
road wins and its home losses. Since this cute little metric is said to be a
personal favorite of long-time NBA coach George Karl (now at ESPN), let’s call
this the Karl Kount (KK).
Criterion No. 3, Conversion Quotient (CQ), involves the rate
at which a team converts its possessions into a successful field goals or free
throw attempts. Like the KK, the computation is simple subtraction—a team’s
rate of offensive efficiency minus that of the opponent.
Lastly, please allow Abacus to introduce the “SPOR-t” score.
SPOR-t stands for “Shooting Plus Offensive Rebounds minus turnovers.” Add a
team’s FG percentage and its offensive rebounding percentage (o. boards divided
by missed FG’s). Then subtract the percentage of a team’s possessions lost to turnovers.
For example, a team shoots field goals at a .488 clip, its offensive rebounds
account for .199 of its missed field goals, and .143 of its possessions result
in a turnover. So its SPOR-t is (488+199-143) or 544. Once again, our
measurement will be the difference between the SPOR-t scores of a team and its
opposition.
We’ll rank the teams from 1 to 12 in all criteria and simply
add up the rankings. Low score wins, naturally.
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