NBA Playoffs Explained in One Chart Per Team
We considered a bunch of different topics ... so we decided to give you all of them.
Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, 14 pictures are worth 14,000 words:
Lev: The ratings were down. Then they weren’t. All in all, this turned out to be an entertaining NBA regular season, capped off by the Nuggets firing the head coach who led them to a championship just months after the Mavericks traded their superstar who led them to the Finals.
There’s a lot to say about the 14 teams already locked into the NBA Playoffs ahead of tonight’s Play-In games, but instead of writing 14,000 words, we’re going to show you 14 pictures, which are supposedly worth the same.
Here’s a data visualization for each playoff team, starting with the Western Conference because, well, the Western Conference is better.
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Western Conference
#1 - Oklahoma City Thunder 🌩️
The Thunder just had the second-best regular season in NBA history, sandwiched right between Michael Jordan’s two best Bulls teams. Eight of the top 10 teams on this list won the title. The other two played in 2016.
#2 - Houston Rockets 🚀
They might not have the best shooters, but they don’t care—they’ll just get the rebound. The Rockets are the fourth different NBA franchise to lead the league in offensive rebounding rate with Steven Adams on the roster.
#3 - Los Angeles Lakers 🐟🛶
The Luka trade didn’t just revitalize the Lakers on the court. He also led the NBA in jersey sales this season, unseating LeBron and Steph from the top spot for the first time in more than a decade.
#4 - Denver Nuggets ⛏️
Denver statistically has the strongest home court advantage (i.e. biggest differential between home and road point differential) in the NBA. “Oh my God, that team needs to be moved,” one player told The Athletic in an anonymous league-wide survey last season. “The altitude is crazy. I don’t like it at all. Every time I play there, I’m dog-tired.”
#5 - Los Angeles Clippers 🚢
The Clippers have their own new home court advantage to combat the Nuggets’ altitude. The Wall of cheering fans at Steve Ballmer’s $2 billion Intuit Dome seems to actually be suppressing opponent free throw percentages 👀
#6 - Minnesota Timberwolves 🐺
A-Rod and Marc Lore, congrats on winning the ownership battle for the Timberwolves. Your reward: a $92.5 million luxury tax bill.
#7 - Golden State Warriors 🥷
The Golden State Warriors had the 29th best free throw rate in the NBA pre-Jimmy Butler trade. Since the trade deadline? They're 1st.
Eastern Conference
#1 - Cleveland Cavaliers ♞
The Mitchell/Garland/Mobley/Allen core hasn’t exactly lit it up in the playoffs in past years, but the Cavs are no joke. They had the best offense in the NBA by a decent margin.
#2 - Boston Celtics ☘️
Joe Mazzulla likes math.
#3 - New York Knicks 🩳
Tom Thibodeau hates his bench.
#4 - Indiana Pacers 🏃
The annual NBA TV series deserves only one chart. Sorry!
#5 - Milwaukee Bucks 🦌
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic are the only candidates for MVP, but that Giannis guy is pretty good at scoring too.
#6 - Detroit Pistons 🚗
The Pistons won 18.5 more games than their preseason Vegas over/under. The only team to exceed that differential in the past decade was the 2021 Knicks (in a shortened season, no less).
#7 - Orlando Magic 🪄
The Magic hate math.
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.