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04/17/2004: "NBA Schedule Peccadillos -- Winners and Losers"

In the NBA, not all teams play all other teams the same number of times. Intraconference games are more frequent than interconference games.

What if that were not the case? What if half of all tema's games were intraconference, and half inter conference? How would that change the standings?

Of course, this is a stupid question for three reasons.

• The East has 15 teams, the West has 14.
  
• Because teams do not play themselves, if all teams were to play each other once, there would be more interconference games than intraconference games.
  
• Who cares?
  

Undaunted and with an excess of time on my hands, I proceeded to conduct an analysis. Click more for the resulting table.

• I started with The Detroit News final NBA results.
  
• I figured out how many conference and nonconference wins and losses each team had,
  
• I figured out their conference and nonconference winning percentages. I added those percentages and divided by two. This became their adjusted finish.
  
• I compared thier rank according to simple wins and losses with thier rank according to my adjusted finish.
  

So who, no one asks, came out ahead because teams play more conference games than non conference games? You could click more, and check the lines in green. Teams that played better against the other conference are in red.

• In the East, Milwaukee is a non factor. By playing the West more often, they would not have needed to lose the tie breaker against New Orleans.
  
• Also in the East, Boston and New York switch spots. New York played poorly against the West. Thus, they have the chance to lose to the Pistons in the second round, instead of having to wait for the third round like Boston now does.
  
• In the West, the Lakers and Spurs switched spots. That does not affect seedings, it does change potential second round home court advantage.
  
• Also in the West, Dallas and Memphis switch spots a la Boston and New York. Except, of course, they would have to wait for the NBA finals to lose to the Pistons.
  
• The biggest difference is the last West seed, the right to lose to Minnesota in the first round. Portland, the official tenth seed, played well against the East. With a more even distribution of games (or so the analysis goes), they would have made the playoffs. Denver would be out of the playoffs. Utah is in ninth either way.
  
  
  Of course, this matters more than NBA hoops to me. This is math, and math is fun. So there.
  
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  	Overall			Conference			Non Conf
  Atlantic	W	L	PCT	W	L	PCT	W	L	PCT	Avg%	Adj Rank	Raw Rank	Change
  y-New Jersey	47	35	57.32	34	20	62.96	13	15	46.43	54.70	3	3	0
  x-Miami	42	40	51.22	30	24	55.56	12	16	42.86	49.21	4	4	0
  x-New York	39	43	47.56	31	23	57.41	8	20	28.57	42.99	8	7	1
  x-Boston	36	46	43.90	24	30	44.44	12	16	42.86	43.65	7	8	-1
  Philadelphia	33	49	40.24	23	31	42.59	10	18	35.71	39.15	10	10	0
  Washington	25	57	30.49	16	38	29.63	9	19	32.14	30.89	13	13	0
  Orlando	21	61	25.61	17	37	31.48	4	24	14.29	22.88	15	15	0
  Central	W	L	PCT
  z-Indiana	61	21	74.39	41	13	75.93	20	8	71.43	73.68	1	1	0
  x-Detroit	54	28	65.85	37	17	68.52	17	11	60.71	64.62	2	2	0
  x-Milwaukee	41	41	50.00	33	21	61.11	8	20	28.57	44.84	6	5	1
  x-New Orleans	41	41	50.00	30	24	55.56	11	17	39.29	47.42	5	5	0
  Cleveland	35	47	42.68	29	25	53.70	6	22	21.43	37.57	11	9	2
  Toronto	33	49	40.24	22	32	40.74	11	17	39.29	40.01	9	10	-1
  Atlanta	28	54	34.15	19	35	35.19	9	19	32.14	33.66	12	12	0
  Chicago	23	59	28.05	19	35	35.19	4	24	14.29	24.74	14	14	0
  Midwest	W	L	PCT
  z-Minnesota	58	24	70.73	34	18	65.38	24	6	80.00	72.69	1	1	0
  x-San Antonio	57	25	69.51	35	17	67.31	22	8	73.33	70.32	3	2	1
  x-Dallas	52	30	63.41	33	19	63.46	19	11	63.33	63.40	6	5	1
  x-Memphis	50	32	60.98	28	24	53.85	22	8	73.33	63.59	5	6	-1
  x-Houston	45	37	54.88	21	31	40.38	24	6	80.00	60.19	7	7	0
  x-Denver	43	39	52.44	29	23	55.77	14	16	46.67	51.22	10	8	2
  Utah	42	40	51.22	25	27	48.08	17	13	56.67	52.37	9	9	0
  Pacific	W	L	PCT
  y-LA Lakers	56	26	68.29	31	21	59.62	25	5	83.33	71.47	2	3	-1
  x-Sacramento	55	27	67.07	31	21	59.62	24	6	80.00	69.81	4	4	0
  Portland	41	41	50.00	22	30	42.31	19	11	63.33	52.82	8	10	-2
  Golden State	37	45	45.12	23	29	44.23	14	16	46.67	45.45	12	11	1
  Seattle	37	45	45.12	22	30	42.31	15	15	50.00	46.15	11	11	0
  Phoenix	29	53	35.37	16	36	30.77	13	17	43.33	37.05	13	13	0
  LA Clippers	28	54	34.15	14	38	26.92	14	16	46.67	36.79	14	14	0