Interesting that Portland is 4th best in the west for PA (Points against) What does this mean? Not sure, because certainly style of play is a huge factor when looking at this stat. But I am going to go out on a limb and say we are not that bad on D @94.9 per game.
Meh. You have to use pace adjusted stats or they are basically meaningless ... for the same reason that ppg are not as indicative as points per 40. Just for kicks, here is the place to see where we rank both offensively and defensively in efficiency. Offense: (3rd in the league) http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats defense: (20th in the league) http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats?sort=defeff&seasonType=2&league=nba
Obviously this website is seriously flawed as well. I mean look at these rankings. Utah #8?? This year is their worst D team ever. Ask their fans. The clippers at # 17?? Toronto at #19. I think I will stick with the old eyeball test. (which verifys the top 6) I mean Chicago is rated ahead of Portland. Come on. 7 Milwaukee 8 Utah 9 Detroit 10 Miami 11 New Orleans 12 Dallas 13 Denver 14 Philadelphia 15 Atlanta 16 Charlotte 17 L.A. Clippers 18 Chicago 19 Toronto
To be fair there's an awful lot of "clustering" and not a lot of range between 7 and 20 (102-105). The stat simply measures the number of points a team allows per 100 possessions and doesn't really care how those points are scored (3 pointers, points in the paint, second chance points, surrendering lots of free throws, etc.) So you're right it's not a be-all-tell-all measurement, but if you use it in conjunction with other measurements it's not completely worthless.
