The Nuggets can flip the switch: While the Nuggets don’t have the best clutch win percentage, they do have the best clutch point differential in the league by an enormous margin - they’re plus-19.5 per 100 possessions in clutch situations, the Nets are next at plus-13.9. The Los Angeles Lakers would climb six spots in the Western Conference standings.Ī historic trajectory: If the Bucks can hold their current win percentage (.786) in close games, they would tie the 2021-22 Phoenix Suns for the best clutch win percentage of any team since the 2015-16 Warriors. The Phoenix Suns would fall five spots in the Western Conference standings. The Denver Nuggets are the lone team from the West to break through.īiggest risers and fallers: The Chicago Bulls would fall five spots in the Eastern Conference standings. The East has been dominant: The top three records in close games and four of the top five belong to the Eastern Conference. San Antonio Spurs - 6-15 (.286) Takeaways from the NBA standings if only close games counted Chicago Bulls - 10-20 (.333) Western Conference standings: Close games onlyġ2.

Eastern Conference standings: Close games onlyġ5. It’s one of the reasons clutch performance isn’t a notably reliable predictor of future performance and tends to vary quite a bit from season to season.īut there are some teams who have consistently found an edge there this year and the NBA standings would look pretty different if we only included games that matched the NBA’s definition of clutch scenarios - any game where the scoring margin is within five at any point in the final five minutes. The random variance imbued in small samples, limited minutes and finite possessions can change things dramatically. But things don’t always work out that way.

The best teams are, generally, the best teams at winning close games. Case in point - the NBA standings would look very different with only close games. Close games and clutch minutes bring a lot of random chaos.

Nba conference standings east and west