Breaking down teams records vs top teams

[davopnz]

Hey guys, I hope this will lead to an interesting discussion. Teamrankings breaks down teams records vs teams ranked 1-5, 6-10 etc etc here: https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/ran...s-1-5-by-other

Has anyone looking at capping playing series using stats like this, or similar stats?

For example, OKC have a great record vs teams ranked 1-5, 10-4 W/L with a net rating of +8.5. They also have a decent record vs teams 6-10, 5-7 W/L with a net rating of +2.4.

They have a below average record vs teams 17-22 and 23-30 compared to most other playoff teams. What this suggests to me is that OKC only really got up for big games during the regular season and slacked off vs weaker team thus they are possibly better than their 6th seed.

Not suggesting this is some sort of bulletproof method and I could be way off but I'm hoping this will lead to valuable dialogue and ideas been shared

[IBetYou]

Thunder have always been that way, including the Durant years. Didn't help them last year vs the Jazz. I like their team this year though.

[gojetsgomoxies]

i also like those statistical breakdowns on teamrankings.com

and you definitely see teams that are "relatively" much better or worse against top/terrible teams... but i wonder if the big differences in relative play are "real" or just data mining.

but i definitely like the idea and think it's worthwhile for someone to track as a system... i.e. minnesota is one of the top 6 or 7 teams vs. top teams. and in bottom 9 against terrible teams. (purely hypothetical. i made up the info on minnesota)

i would also add that playoffs are completely different than R/S. i feel like the playoffs are softly fixed. or at least the refs determine the winner much more than in R/S. maybe HFA is bigger too just as to play/fans.

[BigDofBA]

OKC got sooooo lucky the last few days.

PG 13 hits that shot to beat Houston. Some other teams lose...the Bucks rest their starters.

Now they go from being an 8 seed playing the Warriors to the 6th seed where they could potentially miss both the Warriors and Rockets until possibly the WCF.

They could easily lose to Portland and round 1 but considering they were staring down the Rockets or Warriors a day ago, this seems like a dream scenario drawing the Blazers without Nurkic.

[MisterDog30]

OKC got sooooo lucky the last few days.

PG 13 hits that shot to beat Houston. Some other teams lose...the Bucks rest their starters.

Now they go from being an 8 seed playing the Warriors to the 6th seed where they could potentially miss both the Warriors and Rockets until possibly the WCF.

They could easily lose to Portland and round 1 but considering they were staring down the Rockets or Warriors a day ago, this seems like a dream scenario drawing the Blazers without Nurkic.

Steven Adams will feast. I like Zach Collins, but you can only play him in spurts and he's much more effective on drives and help defense. Enes Kanter is an abortion on defense, especially the pick and roll.

The way I see it, Russell Westbrook is OKC's biggest threat to them winning this series. He simply can't go hero ball for multiple possessions at a time. Not against Portland. A couple bad shots strung together by Russ will open up transition 3 pointers for POR guards. Russ needs to be a PnR facilitator first. I can't tell you how many times this year I've seen him give up on a PnR to step out and take an atrocious 3 pointer.