Talisman Red's NBA Computer Ratings
Presented here are computer ratings and rankings for NBA and, hopefully, a system that can come somewhat close to predicting final game scores. The Predictions tab includes games scheduled for the next few days.
To calculate a hypothetical margin of victory for any other matchup, just use the "Points" column. The home advantage fluctuates based on games played, but is consistently about 2.5 to 3 points.
For the last couple of years, all overtime games are recorded as "ties" because this helps the score predictions be slightly more accurate. 20 Jan 2026 update: The performance this year has been, well, woof. I noticed an error that was keeping way too many old games in the predictions file. Hopefully things will improve from here forward.
If you need original text files for anything below, check the Description tab. Let me know if you see any issues. Thanks and glad you're here!
Everything is now in one scrollable page, instead of the tabs which required Javascript. Easier for phone users, I hope. Scrapers should not be impacted.
Ratings
NBA Computer Ratings Last updated 09-May-2026 08 AM ET Rank Team W L OT Rating Points BCS 1 Oklahoma City 65 18 5 3.43 61.08 2 2 San Antonio 67 21 2 3.30 59.86 1 3 Detroit 64 22 5 2.66 57.99 3 4 New York 58 31 3 2.26 57.81 4 5 Boston 57 30 2 2.09 56.86 5 6 Houston 53 26 9 1.63 54.31 6 7 Denver 51 27 9 1.63 54.86 8 8 Cleveland 56 31 4 1.47 53.76 7 9 Charlotte 42 38 4 1.25 55.49 11 10 Minnesota 52 35 4 1.02 52.99 10 Rank Team W L OT Rating Points BCS 11 LA Lakers 55 33 2 0.98 51.97 9 12 Toronto 46 38 5 0.72 53.08 15 13 Atlanta 46 40 2 0.61 51.65 13 14 Orlando 46 40 5 0.59 51.49 12 15 LA Clippers 39 41 3 0.27 51.24 17 16 Miami 42 39 2 0.26 51.50 19 17 Phoenix 45 41 2 0.23 51.25 18 18 Philadelphia 46 40 7 0.18 49.59 14 19 Portland 43 42 3 0.15 50.12 16 20 Golden State 35 44 5 -0.64 48.64 20 Rank Team W L OT Rating Points BCS 21 New Orleans 25 52 5 -1.40 46.54 22 22 Dallas 24 51 7 -1.70 45.22 24 23 Milwaukee 30 48 4 -1.74 43.39 21 24 Chicago 30 50 2 -1.77 44.28 23 25 Indiana 18 62 2 -2.60 42.89 29 26 Memphis 23 56 3 -2.68 42.03 26 27 Sacramento 20 59 3 -2.77 40.42 25 28 Utah 19 58 5 -2.82 41.46 28 29 Brooklyn 20 59 3 -3.04 39.84 27 30 Washington 17 62 3 -3.56 38.41 30
Ratings by Division
Teams are sorted by computer ranking (in parentheses), not necessarily by win-loss percentage. As on the front page, overtime games get recorded as ties to make the predictions hopefully more accurate. Playoff games between division teams end up getting counted here, too.
NBA Computer Ratings (Last updated 09-May-2026 08 AM ET) --- Atlantic CW CL OT W L OT Rating Rank Points NCWNCLNCT Non-Conf Sched 1 New York 17 3 0 58 31 3 2.26 ( 4) 57.81 41 28 3 -0.12 ( 25) 2 Boston 11 10 2 57 30 2 2.09 ( 5) 56.86 46 20 0 -0.11 ( 24) 3 Toronto 4 12 1 46 38 5 0.72 ( 12) 53.08 42 26 4 0.01 ( 20) 4 Philadelphia 13 12 1 46 40 7 0.18 ( 18) 49.59 33 28 6 -0.15 ( 27) 5 Brooklyn 3 11 2 20 59 3 -3.04 ( 29) 39.84 17 48 1 -0.19 ( 29) --- Central CW CL OT W L OT Rating Rank Points NCWNCLNCT Non-Conf Sched 1 Detroit 13 4 1 64 22 5 2.66 ( 3) 57.99 51 18 4 0.09 ( 10) 2 Cleveland 11 6 1 56 31 4 1.47 ( 8) 53.76 45 25 3 0.13 ( 7) 3 Milwaukee 9 7 0 30 48 4 -1.74 ( 23) 43.39 21 41 4 0.04 ( 16) 4 Chicago 4 12 0 30 50 2 -1.77 ( 24) 44.28 26 38 2 0.08 ( 13) 5 Indiana 4 12 0 18 62 2 -2.60 ( 25) 42.89 14 50 2 0.13 ( 8) --- Southeast CW CL OT W L OT Rating Rank Points NCWNCLNCT Non-Conf Sched 1 Charlotte 11 6 1 42 38 4 1.25 ( 9) 55.49 31 32 3 0.00 ( 22) 2 Atlanta 9 7 0 46 40 2 0.61 ( 13) 51.65 37 33 2 0.27 ( 4) 3 Orlando 9 8 1 46 40 5 0.59 ( 14) 51.49 37 32 4 0.38 ( 2) 4 Miami 10 7 1 42 39 2 0.26 ( 16) 51.50 32 32 1 0.10 ( 9) 5 Washington 2 13 1 17 62 3 -3.56 ( 30) 38.41 15 49 2 -0.02 ( 23) --- Northwest CW CL OT W L OT Rating Rank Points NCWNCLNCT Non-Conf Sched 1 Oklahoma City 10 4 2 65 18 5 3.43 ( 1) 61.08 55 14 3 0.01 ( 21) 2 Denver 11 8 3 51 27 9 1.63 ( 7) 54.86 40 19 6 -0.15 ( 28) 3 Minnesota 13 8 1 52 35 4 1.02 ( 10) 52.99 39 27 3 -0.12 ( 26) 4 Portland 7 8 1 43 42 3 0.15 ( 19) 50.12 36 34 2 0.02 ( 17) 5 Utah 1 14 1 19 58 5 -2.82 ( 28) 41.46 18 44 4 -0.22 ( 30) --- Pacific CW CL OT W L OT Rating Rank Points NCWNCLNCT Non-Conf Sched 1 LA Lakers 10 7 0 55 33 2 0.98 ( 11) 51.97 45 26 2 0.33 ( 3) 2 LA Clippers 10 7 0 39 41 3 0.27 ( 15) 51.24 29 34 3 0.05 ( 15) 3 Phoenix 11 7 0 45 41 2 0.23 ( 17) 51.25 34 34 2 0.44 ( 1) 4 Golden State 8 10 0 35 44 5 -0.64 ( 20) 48.64 27 34 5 0.20 ( 6) 5 Sacramento 4 12 0 20 59 3 -2.77 ( 27) 40.42 16 47 3 0.08 ( 11) --- Southeast CW CL OT W L OT Rating Rank Points NCWNCLNCT Non-Conf Sched 1 San Antonio 12 3 1 67 21 2 3.30 ( 2) 59.86 55 18 1 0.22 ( 5) 2 Houston 10 5 1 53 26 9 1.63 ( 6) 54.31 43 21 8 0.08 ( 12) 3 New Orleans 6 7 3 25 52 5 -1.40 ( 21) 46.54 19 45 2 0.06 ( 14) 4 Dallas 4 11 1 24 51 7 -1.70 ( 22) 45.22 20 40 6 0.02 ( 19) 5 Memphis 4 10 2 23 56 3 -2.68 ( 26) 42.03 19 46 1 0.02 ( 18)
Division Rankings
The average computer rating of all teams in a division is shown here.
Rank Conference Mean Rating ---- ------------------------- ----------- 1 Northwest 0.68 2 Atlantic 0.44 3 Southeast -0.17 4 Southeast -0.17 5 Pacific -0.39 6 Central -0.40
Game Predictions
These predictions already include home advantage, if necessary.
PREDICTIONS FOR UPCOMING GAMES Date Away Team Home Team Total Prediction ----------- -------------------- -------------------- ----- -------------- 09-May-2026 Oklahoma City LA Lakers 226 AWAY by -7.21 09-May-2026 Detroit Cleveland 228 AWAY by -2.33 10-May-2026 San Antonio Minnesota 225 AWAY by -4.97 10-May-2026 New York Philadelphia 219 AWAY by -6.32 11-May-2026 Oklahoma City LA Lakers 226 AWAY by -7.21 11-May-2026 Detroit Cleveland 228 AWAY by -2.33 12-May-2026 Minnesota San Antonio 235 HOME by 8.77 12-May-2026 Philadelphia New York 225 HOME by 10.12 13-May-2026 LA Lakers Oklahoma City 217 HOME by 11.01 13-May-2026 Cleveland Detroit 218 HOME by 6.13 14-May-2026 New York Philadelphia 219 AWAY by -6.32
Description
Original Text Files
Feel free to download these; if you use them elsewhere, give credit to talismanred.com.
- Rankings
- Division Standings (but sorted by computer rating)
- Game Predictions
What is this about?
Computer ratings are the starting point for Vegas oddsmakers, and have traditionally done reasonably well at predicting game winners. On this page, I share my own formula, which I've been producing for one sport or another for about 20 years. If you're familiar with ratings you've probably heard of the others: Sagarin, Massey, and more.
So it's just a math formula?
Yep, that's all that computer ratings are. You can do it this way, or you can do like they do for college sports and do a human "poll" (coaches, writers, whoever).
The formula here is one that I developed quite a few years ago to try and "compete" with all the other folks who are doing it. That's where the predictions come from -- incorporating historical games and trying to use those to figure out what will happen next. It includes scores, dates, and locations, but no other information. No information about injuries, pace or speed of the game, shooting percentages, etc. Those things *do* matter, but they aren't factored in here.
Are the predictions any good?
In 2023-24, my NBA ratings predicted 64.2% of the correct game winners. By comparison, Jeff Sagarin's method got 65.8% correct. Over a season of about 850 games, that is a 10-15 game difference. I'll let you decide how much difference there is for 10-15 games out of 850. (I suspect that most of that was early in the season, when it's more difficult to know what a team's true strength is going to be. Jeff's preseason algorithm is probably more sophisticated than mine.)
That said, the Vegas line got 68.0% of winners. You just cannot beat a human touch!
In 2025-26, about mid-January I noticed that this year's predictions were doing terribly (61%, compared to most of the other computers at 65-66%). So I did what any self-respecting programmer would do, I adjusted the formula in hopes of improving accuracy. I'll report back with the results. One of the big factors is how much recent information do you keep when trying to predict a team's performance. A couple weeks? A month? The whole season?
Ratings Description
This rating system uses a formula developed by the owners of talismanred.com. It is explained in more detail over on the college football page, but the bottom line is that it can be used both for ranking teams as well as predicting future scores. In some circles, you'll see that referred to as both "retrodictive" and "predictive."
About the Author
I am a faculty member at Indiana University in Bloomington, with a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. For my day job, in addition to teaching lots of courses I have research interests in the broad areas of thunderstorms and numerical weather prediction (forecasting the weather using computers). Contact me using this email form if you have questions or non-hateful comments.