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The Lakers because they don't have to ever face the Lakers
There have been discussions that this team or that team is better than the other based largely on record. I've heard people say that the Spurs hot start was largely due to a weak schedule and they'd even out later but that other teams with a few more losses would be where the Spurs were had their schedule been as easier. So, I pulled some data on some of the elite teams in the league as well as most of the winning teams out West. Heres what I was interested in:
1) Whats their record?
2) What wins do they have over teams with winning records? What about the two teams that are at .500 right now (Blazers/Knicks)?
3) Who are their losses to?
4) Home vs. Road games?
A major win is denoted as a team at or above .500
Heres what I pulled:
Dallas Mavericks (13-4)
Major wins: @ Nuggets, Celtics, Hornets, Hawks, @ Thunder, @ Spurs, Heat
Losses: Grizzlies, Nuggets, @ Hornets, Bulls
9 Home, 8 Road
Assessment: The Mavs have some solid wins against some good teams. And while they have more losses than the Spurs, they also have played a couple more winning teams. I'd say they're legit right now and look great. Pretty difficult strength of schedule compared to the rest of the league's elite.
Signature Win: @ Spurs
New Orleans Hornets (12-5)
Major wins: Nuggets, @ Spurs, Heat, Blazers (.500), Mavs, Blazers (.500)
Losses: @ Mavs, @ Clippers, @ Jazz, Spurs, @ Thunder
8 Home, 9 Road
Assessment: The Hornets started really hot and have tapered considerably. Wins against the Mavs and @ Spurs are huge for them. As well, all their losses are against quality opponents sans the egg they laid to the Clips. While they're slipping late, they look solid too and have had a difficult schedule.
Signature win: @ Spurs/ vs. Mavs
Los Angeles Lakers (13-4)
Major wins: Blazers (.500), Bulls
Losses: @ Nuggets, Suns, @ Jazz, Pacers
9 Home, 8 Road
Assessment: The Lakers have basically played nobody this year. Having only played four teams with winning records they've lost three of those. For a team with 17 games in the books thats terribly easy so far. Plus, looking forward they don't get a whole lot of compe ion for a while. Very very weak schedule that doesn't seem to mean a whole lot. While they are the defending champs they get the benefit of the doubt. But hanging their hat on their record is a fool's game at this point.
Signature win: vs. Bulls
Utah Jazz (14-5)
Major wins: Thunder, Heat, Magic, Hawks, @ Blazers (.500), Hornets, Lakers
Losses: @ Nuggets, Suns, @ Warriors, Thunder, Spurs
10 Home, 9 Road
Assessment: The Jazz have dropped a few games to good teams but have played a LOT of good teams. Now, all of their big games have come at home with zero games against elite opponents coming on the road and only one road game against a team with a winning record. As a result they have an average strength of schedule but with some quality wins to boot.
Signature win: vs. Magic (and vs. Heat in a back to back)
Oklahoma City Thunder (12-6)
Major wins: Bulls, @ Blazers (.500), @ Jazz, @ Celtics, Pacers, Hornets
Losses: Jazz, @ Clippers, Celtics, Spurs, Mavs, @ Rockets
10 Home, 8 Road
Assessment: The Thunder have played a considerable schedule games with their full season series against the Eastern Conference champs already in the books as well as a game against the league leading Spurs. The Thunder have an above average strength of schedule through 18 and look pretty good.
Signature win: @ Celtics
Miami Heat (10-8)
Major wins: Magic
Losses: @ Celtics, @ Hornets, Jazz, Celtics, @ Grizzlies, Pacers, @ Magic, @ Mavs
11 Home, 7 Road
Assessment: The first things that pops out at you with Miami is that they've played considerably more home games than road and had a very long stretch of consecutive home games there in their schedule early on. While they've played a number of good teams including multiple matches against elite teams (Mavs, Magic x2, Celtics x2) they have yet to win much of anything. They have beat ONE team with a winning record out of their ten. Above average strength of schedule but a very poor showing for it.
Signature win: vs. Magic
Boston Celtics (12-4)
Major wins: Heat, Bulls, @ Thunder, @ Heat, @ Hawks
Major losses: @ Cavs, @ Mavs, Thunder, @ Raptors
8 Home, 8 Road
Assessment: The Celtics have had an average strength of schedule so far with their only game against the league's elite coming in a loss to the Mavs. Two games against the Heat were nice wins of unclear quality as the quality of the Heat in generaly unknown. Two matchups with the savvy Thunder were nice too. Still, the Celtics look decent but we need a better sample size to paint a full picture.
Signature win: @ Heat
Orlando Magic (12-4)
Major wins: Hawks, @ Pacers, Heat
Major losses: @ Heat, Jazz, Raptors, @ Spurs
10 Home, 6 Road
Assessment: The first thing that sticks out is the lack of road games on the season for the Magic as well as a lack of quality opponents. The Magic have had a very weak schedule so far with only one game against the league's elite and then two against the, again, unknown Heat. This team looks good but needs to play more quality opponents to get a clearer picture.
Signature win: vs. Heat
And so....
San Antonio Spurs (14-2)
Major wins: Pacers, @ Thunder, Bulls, @ Jazz, Magic, @ Hornets
Losses: Hornets, Mavs
9 Home, 7 Road
Assessment: The Spurs have played 16 games this season with 8 of them coming against teams with winning records (50%). Of those 8 teams 4 of them were teams I'll label as elite to this point (Magic, Mavs, Hornets x2). The Spurs don't have the most difficult schedule, but they're pretty respectable in that category when considering teams like Orlando and LA.
Signature win: @ Hornets, vs. Magic
The Lakers because they don't have to ever face the Lakers
Oh, and the Lakers ALWAYS have an easier schedule than everyone because they play 43 home games a year and only 39 away games.The Lakers because they don't have to ever face the Lakers
http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/powerrankings
Spurs SOS = 0.514 which is fairly stout and this is adjusted daily. To be fair the Mavs, Bulls and Jazz have also played pretty tough schedules but it all evens out and IMO any WC team usually plays a tougher schedule during the year (except LAL seemingly has a front loaded schedule that makes their record suspect, albeit they are the champs. LAL gets less back to backs this year than almost all teams, and has two GRUELING " road" games vs the Clippers and has a sublimely easy start to the year.)
At that, the Spurs SOS is still only 13th in the league (middle of the pack), behind:
.560 -- CHI
.557 -- LAC
.555 -- DEN
.550 -- PNX
.546 -- NOH
.542 -- DAL
.542 -- HOU
.536 -- OKC
.527 -- UTH
.525 -- MEM
.522 -- PRT
.519 -- MIL
Nice page.
Lakers with the lowest SOS of the league's top 15.
Highest SOS is the Bulls. Of the teams I listed the highest in the Hornets followed very closely by the Mavs.
I think the Bulls are going to be a top 3 seed in the East, considering what they're doing minus one of their best players.
You need to revise this; those back-to-back wins over the Heat and Magic were on the road. It was a very impressive pair of wins.
Beating the Heat, even on the road, isn't all that ing impressive.
Mavs major wins arent that great, heat and hawks suck, and nuggets isnt that impressive.
Utah's been really surprising this year with all these come-from-behind wins this season.
To be fair... the Clippers strength of schedule is inflated because their opponents each have an extra win against them
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