The 21st week of the NBA season marks the end of the NBA regular season. It was weird; it was wacky. This season will always be remembered for what we didn’t see. We didn’t see people in the stands at the start. Then, near the end, we saw a smattering of people. We didn’t see 82 games. Instead, the Association scheduled only 72 games per team. But, we did see drama. We saw incredible plays and awesome displays of teamwork. We watch the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers build momentum with a mad dash to finish the regular season. There were also some questionable displays by some franchises on the final day of the season in what one of our contributors, Ajay Virk, dubbed “Tank-A-Thon”.
The dust has settled and the ink is dry on the 2020-21 NBA season. In the final week the Lakers (4-0) and the Golden State Warriors (4-0) were the only teams to go undefeated. The Lakers welcomed back Anthony Davis and LeBron James. They used the final week to get them back into game shape. Based on the results and box scores, mission accomplished! The Warriors rode a healthy Stephen Curry to their undefeated record. As luck would have it, two of the hottest Western Conference teams are set to play in the NBA’s play-in tournament to earn the 7th seed. The New Orleans Pelicans whimpered to the finish line with an 0-4 record.
Please watch our video for an overview of our process as well as details about this weeks rankings! Watch the video here:
Week and Season Recap
The final week of the season had only two teams make moves. The Los Angeles Clippers (2-2) did not end the season on fire. Having secured 4th in the conference they rested most of their team their final two games, resulting in two losses. The Denver Nuggets (3-1) did the same in their final game. That loss kept the Nuggets from holding the #3 spot in the Power Rankings. The Clippers, on the strength of one more Quality Win than the Nuggets over the course of the season, jumped up to #3.
If I pop the hood on our analytics engine I find that the Clippers beat out the nuggets by only .0010 points! In fact, the difference between the #5 Blazers and #7 Mavericks is only .0010. In other words, the West is as wild as it has ever been. Any team that finished in the top 7 in the Western Conference has a great chance to win it all.
Week 21 Western Conference Power Rankings
The Strength of Schedule Western Conference Power Rankings are a points based ranking method developed by thePeachBasket. In short, points are awarded for wins and losses. The better the team you beat, the more points you earn. It’s simple and takes the opinion out of Power Rankings. It’s math and its brought to you by thePeachBasket, Voice of the Fan!(tm)
