Tuesday, November 24, 2009

On Starting 11-2

This post made possible by Basketball-Reference.com

Since the start of the 2000-01 season there have been 159 stretches* where a team has won 11 or more games and lost two or fewer games.

  • 101 different teams have accomplished this in 267 team seasons** during the period under consideration. That means 37.8% of teams in the last decade have had a stretch where they've gone 11-2 or better.
  • 64 of those 100 teams*** won 50 or more games.
  • 9 of the 100 teams won 41 games or fewer. The 2004-05 Golden State Warriors won the fewest games, 34, of any team that went at least 11-2.
  • The 100 teams averaged 51.9 wins.
  • 14 teams started a season 11-2 or better.
  • The 13 teams that started the season 11-2 or better (and have completed that season--see note ***) averaged 58.8 wins.
  • 3 teams started a season exactly 11-2 and no better. They averaged 54**** wins.
*159 separate stretches. For example, I didn't count going 12-2 as two separate 13 game stretches wherein a team went 11-2.

**I only include the Hawks 2009-10 season in this total as they've already gone 11-2. No other team has done so yet and they all theoretically could. Dallas could do so tonight. That would make it, by this method of accounting, 102 out of 268 teams, 38.1%.

***The 2009-10 Hawks are not included here as we don't know how many games they'll win this season. That state of not knowing being the driving force behind this (admittedly) now slightly out of date post.

****Which, interestingly, is almost exactly how many games Larry predicted the Hawks would win after the Houston game.

2 comments:

Peachtree Hoops said...

great stuff, Bret. I wonder if starting 11-2 or ending 11-2 verses a Feb. run of 11-2 has any affect on playoff success either overall or in the playoffs.

it seems for an overall record 11-2 start could be better than an 11-2 midseason. get a team believing, on the right foot, confident, etc.

thirdfalcon said...

Good stuff, although I predict that if we only win 54 games things will not be so lovey-duvey towards the Hawks around here by the end of the season.