NBA Standings: Which teams have the best point differential?

The standings in the NBA are simple, it tells you how many games a team has either won or lost. Behind the wins and losses, there are stats that explain how good teams really are compared to their opponent. Point differential is one of the advanced stats that can tell you how good a team is.

Point differential is a team's average margin of victory (or defeat) per 100 possessions. Most of the time, the teams with the best record have a positive point differential while the teams with bad records have a negative point differential. But a lot of close wins paired with a lot of huge losses, and vice versa, can create outliers.

Eastern Conference standings by point differential:

Western Conference standings by point differential

Takeaways from the NBA Standings if only point differential counted

The West is more competitive: More than half of the West has a team with a positive net rating but they also have a few teams with a winning record with a net rating. This just means that the games they play in have a close score and they lose games by a larger margin than what they win by.

Biggest risers and fallers: The Los Angeles Clippers would rise up five spots to the number one seed in the Western Conference. The Milwaukee Bucks would fall seven spots in the Eastern Conference. The San Antonio Spurs would fall five spots in the Western Conference.

Historic dominance: The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, which is also the 72-10 Bulls, have the best point differential in 82 games with 13.4. The Boston Celtics are currently at 20.1 which means they have the potential to be historically good.

Bucks panic button: The Milwaukee Bucks pulled off a trade to pair Giannis Antetokounmpo with Damian Lillard but so far, they have had two blowout losses and two close wins. With Giannis and Lillard sharing the court, they should be far more dominant and need to start getting it together if they want to compete with the Celtics.