RealGM

I was just checking our team stats compared to some other teams and I made an interesting discovery.

OKC is outscoring the other team by an average of +5.9 pts, which is not a whole lot considering our record of 29-8.
Now Chicago's number is +9.5, while having almost the same record of 30-8.
Two other teams have relatively even better numbers:
Philly is +7.2, while they are 22-15.
Portland is +4.0 although having a negative record of 18-19.

I checked then for each of those teams separately their Wins and their Losses.

OKC average win: by 9.7 pts
average loss: by 7.9 pts
Chicago avg win: by 14.8 pts
average loss: by 10.9 pts
Philly avg win: by 17.8 pts
average loss: by 8.3 pts
Portland avg win: by 16.5 pts
average loss: by 7.9 pts

Chicago's numbers look pretty much what you would expect, thats kind of the normal numbers that you expect.
Now OKC's stats are pretty weird, showing that they win a lot of very close games.
Philly's and Portland's stats show the opposite. They both outscore their opponents by a lot of points in their wins, but still have much less wins in total than OKC. They both more than double the difference in margin in their wins, compared to their losses.

Now Im not sure what this indicates, but it could mean two thing for the Thunder.
1. They are a very good closing team and usually win the close games, which is a very positive thing.
2. They are kind of lucky with their current record of 28-9, as they are not outscoring their opponents by much, therefore could be easily having a similar or worse record than Philly at this stage.

These statistics are a big part of the reason seasoned observers don't feel the Thunder are yet ready to win a championship. It's part of the adage, a good team wins close games, but a great team doesn't let the game get close. Hollinger states that this statistic, even more than wins, is the best predictor for playoff success.

I happen to believe that the journey is far more important than the result.

I realize this is an old thread, but

Don't put too much stock into margin of victory for eastern conference teams. They play the terrible eastern conference lottery teams a lot more than west teams get to. Those games severely pad their team stats as their 8 lottery teams fight with eachother to see who can tank the hardest.

Have you ever noticed that east coast road trips almost feel like rest days? Yeah, I have too.

East barely plays over .400 against the west, west nearly plays .600 against the east. East is weaker overall due to all their garbage teams. Even their +.500 teams barely feel like they're even .500 teams.

Wolves/Suns/etc, feel way better than the Hawks to me. The Kings seem way better than the Cavs, Pistons, etc, despite similar records. Bobcats and Wizards feel like d league teams, and make the Hornets look like a.400 team. Basically, assume the Heat/Bulls/76ers, etc, have inflated margins of victory and offensive/defensive ratings. . .because they are inflated due to playing the east's annual 7-8 lottery teams 3-4x a year.