Dec 13, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) dribbles the ball past Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki (41) during the second half at the American Airlines Center. The Warriors defeated the Mavericks 105-98. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
With the all-star weekend and a flurry of trades in the past[1. Also, my laptop bogged down last week so rankings for that set of games were absent. Fun times.], the Watchability Rankings are back. We’re at an interesting part of the season for these, closing in on 60 games for each team but only a handful or so since the trade deadline. The rankings still take into account a team’s full body of work, but the sample is now so large now that there would be little movement from week-to-week. With that in mind, I made a small tweak to put a little more weight on the last 10 games. This should give games featuring teams playing well a chance at a bump and those with sinking teams, like the Denver Nuggets, a possible downtick. Not surprisingly, games including the Golden State Warriors didn’t change much at all, and along with them the Cavaliers made up a majority of the top projected games of the week.
Below are the rankings of the 54 games this week (click to enlarge!). The ranks on the left were sorted by their projected score while the ones on the right were sorted by day.
Very little changed in the top and bottom of the rankings compared to where they would’ve been placed previously. Golden State-Dallas remains one of the best possible combos from the formula and Indiana, New York, and Miami are still some of the most disliked teams, but there’s a greater chance for each to climb out of that hole now. There was a bunch of movement in the middle of the ranks. A few more games placed in the 50s when they were initially in the 40s when weighing all parts of the season equally, and the two Knicks-Pacers games finished in last but got a few more points than before.
Overall, games with Chicago seemed to get the biggest bump even though the injury bug has bit them yet again, so we’ll see if this is the last week they get an uptick. Toronto was among those that were penalized for their play as of late. Going forward, we’ll see which teams end up really rising or dropping here, and if Golden State remains the formula‘s favorite.
Looking at each day, they all have at least one top-10 game and we could have another fun Thursday night, though it would be even better if Russell Westbrook returned after undergoing facial surgery. There’s a potential dud on national television with the Lakers-Heat matchup, but the top five are on either ESPN, TNT, or NBATV. Nice to see, but to nitpick, maybe it would be cool if everyone had a chance to see more great Eastern Conference showdowns like Cavs-Hawks on Friday.
Enjoy the week!