Make It Last Forever: Warriors (3-0) - The Warriors played three solid teams and beat them all by at least 15 points.Hampton and Terrence Ross (ORL) were both a minus-59 last week. Right Way: Jrue Holiday (MIL) was a plus-117 in four games last week.(The Suns and Warriors are playing each other on Christmas, too.) They’re the top two in the Power Rankings, and they’re playing each other twice this week. Of course, the teams with the two best records are in the West. Through Sunday, nine of the 14 teams that have winning records are in the East. The West has had a better record than the East in 22 of the last 23 seasons, but the East is off to a strong start this year (see below).
But the Play-In still heavily favors the teams that finish seventh and eighth in the standings.Īnother thing that could be different this year: It might be more difficult to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference than it is in the West. We haven’t had an 82-game season since that breakdown, and things are different with the Play-In Tournament. Basically, 86% of the teams that won at least 11 of their first 20 games went on to make the playoffs, while 87% of the teams that won fewer than nine of their first 20 did not. Through Sunday, 304 (24.7%) of 1,230 games are in the books, with teams having averaged a little more than 20 games played.īefore the 2019-20 season, we broke down what a team’s record through 20 games says about the likelihood it makes the playoffs in a full, 82-game season. We’ve made it to the quarter pole of the 2021-22 season. Steph Curry and Chris Paul are set to face off twice during Week 7.