No catchy intro today. Alas, these ratings are already a bit outdated, with the Storm having completed a victory in Detroit. Still, for posterity’s sake …

OFFENSIVE/DEFENSIVE RATINGS

Team           ORtg     Team           DRtg
-------------------     -------------------
Phoenix       109.3     Indiana        93.6
Minnesota     104.5     Connecticut    95.6
Indiana       102.3     Los Angeles    96.8
San Antonio   100.5     Atlanta        97.3
Atlanta       100.5     New York       98.1
Seattle       100.4     Washington     98.6
AVERAGE       100.2     Seattle        98.7
Chicago        99.8     Detroit       100.0
Connecticut    99.7     AVERAGE       100.2
Sacramento     99.1     San Antonio   102.8
Washington     97.3     Sacramento    104.1
New York       96.5     Minnesota     104.3
Detroit        96.3     Chicago       104.6
Los Angeles    93.6     Phoenix       106.0

The big jump on the offensive side is by San Antonio. Scoring a franchise-record 106 points, as the Silver Stars did Saturday against the Mercury, will do that. At the same time, have you noticed the Silver Stars struggling on defense? I know full well the danger of looking at point totals, but San Antonio has allowed 85-plus points in seven of the last eight games and has slipped to ninth in the league in Defensive Rating. Who would have figured the Silver Stars for an all-offense team?

Also, it’s time to take Atlanta seriously as a contender. The Dream and the Indiana Fever are the only teams in the league in the top five in both offense and defense. That label once applied to the Storm, but now Seattle is just outside the top five in both categories.

EXPECTED WINS STANDINGS

Team         Exp. W     Team         Exp. W
-------------------     -------------------
Phoenix        20.2     Indiana        23.4
Seattle        18.5     Connecticut    20.6
Minnesota      16.0     Atlanta        19.4
Los Angeles    16.0     Washington     16.6
San Antonio    15.3     New York       15.8
Sacramento     12.2     Detroit        14.1
                        Chicago        13.0

A 17-point loss at the AT&T Center brought the Mercury back to a crowded pack in the Western Conference.  In the East, point differential is now reflecting three different tiers – Indiana, then Atlanta and Connecticut, then everyone else. As discussed time and again in this space, we’ll see when or if the East’s actual standings follow suit.

WARP LEADERS

Player               Tm   Win%   WARP
-------------------------------------
Nicky Anosike       MIN   .752    6.1
Lauren Jackson      SEA   .729    5.8
Diana Taurasi       PHO   .739    5.8
Tamika Catchings    IND   .724    5.7
Becky Hammon        SAS   .718    5.6
Jia Perkins         CHI   .677    4.7
Sancho Lyttle       ATL   .686    4.4
Janel McCarville    NYL   .671    4.3
Shameka Christon    NYL   .633    4.1
Cappie Pondexter    PHO   .614    4.1

In case you were curious, Lauren Jackson’s 36-point effort tonight against the Shock was alone worth 0.5 WARP and is enough to bump her back atop the leaderboard. Beyond that, things seem to have pretty well shaken out by this point.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 7:08 pm and is filed under WNBA, stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.