After an unusual regular season, let’s look at how teams fared in a variety of statistical categories, especially compared to last season, which had more games and was not played at a single site.

Net Rating:

Teams are sorted by their offensive efficiency with the green bar representing offensive rating and the blue bar representing defensive rating.  The net rating is the difference between them.  Seattle had the best figures in both categories while Las Vegas, which won the tiebreaker for the top seed, was second in both.  The other two teams that earned a bye have the third place marks with Minnesota having the stronger offense and Los Angeles possessing the stronger defense.  The four non-playoff teams had the four worst defenses while New York’s offense was especially poor.

Changes from 2019:

The green column represents the change in offensive rating from last season with a positive number indicating improvement.  The blue column represents the change in defensive rating from last season and a negative number represents improvement.  The yellow bar combines them and shows the change in net rating and a positive number shows improvement.  Of note, Seattle was the only team to have an improved defense.  They also had the largest improvement in offensive rating to have a substantial overall improvement.  After Washington had such an impressive offense last season, it is no surprise to see the impact of missing players on their ratings this year.  For the teams with new coaches, Indiana improved on offense, but that was offset by the worst change on defense while New York’s defense was a little worse than last year’s league worst, but saw a bigger drop on the offensive end.  Also of note, offensive rebounding generally decreased this season and pace increased.

Rebounding:

The x-axis represents the percentage of available defensive rebounds a team grabbed and the y-axis represented the percentage of available offensive rebounds that a team grabbed.  It is no surprise that Las Vegas had the best defensive rebounding again and the two teams behind them were the same as last year as well with Washington pushing ahead of Connecticut this year.    Phoenix had the poorest defensive rebounding, which they also struggled with last year, and Seattle’s overall defense is impressive given their rebounding.  Minnesota had the best offensive rebounding just ahead of Connecticut, which led last year.

Home Team Designation:

Much had been made of the apparent difference in performance for the team designated as the home team even though teams have all been playing in the same location.  It only got more bizarre at the end of the season as the final record for home teams was 66-66.  Las Vegas, Minnesota, Chicago, and Dallas had the same amount of wins regardless of the designated home team.  Indiana had four more wins for their home games while Connecticut had four more wins when they were not the home team.  Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington had slightly more wins as home teams while Phoenix and Atlanta had one more win as the away team and neither of New York’s wins came when they were the home team.

Diving into the differences in various statistical categories, there may not be an easy explanation.  Atlanta had a better offense and defense at home and rebounded better, but still ended up winning one fewer game when they were the home team.  They and Las Vegas play faster at home and turn the ball over more often, a problem that also plagued Connecticut in their games as the home team.  Las Vegas played substantially worse on offense in home games, but they were incredibly stingy on defense, nearly allowing 10 fewer points per 100 possessions while also rebounding better on both ends, all for a net total of the same wins at home as away.  Indiana was 8 points better on offense and 2 points better on defense per 100 possessions as the home team, which certainly explains why they won five games as the home team while only one away.  Connecticut’s offensive rating was only marginally worse at home, but their defense played much worse as the home team, explaining their discrepancy.  Seattle had the second biggest improvement on both offense and defense as the home team.  The most interesting data will be if the final three series go four or five games as there will be more data between the same teams and same players.  The chart below shows net rating changes for home teams sorted by biggest improvement at home.  The green bar represents offense and positive means better at home while blue represents defense and negative means better at home with the yellow being the combined total representing the difference in net rating as the home team.

Shot Selection:

Las Vegas has been singled out for their decision to not shoot from distance and their final totals for the season have them shooting about five times as many shots from inside the arc as beyond it.  Atlanta was the next most likely to attempt field goals from two-point range doing so slightly more than three times more than from distance.  New York’s new offensive philosophy was  evident as they shot 41.5% of their attempts from beyond the arc, with Dallas behind them at 38.9%.  That philosophy becomes even more clear when you look at where their points come from as they only have a league low 8% of their points come from mid-range two-pointers.  Interestingly, despite the difference in opinion on three-pointers, Las Vegas and New York lead the league in percentage of points scored at the free throw line at over 21% while Chicago gets 86% of their points from field goals.  Indiana does not get many points from turnovers or the fast break, lagging greatly in both categories compared to the rest of the league.  A rather unusual statistic is Phoenix’s assist percentage as they lead the league in assisted two-pointers, but have the lowest percentage of their three-pointers assisted.  Las Vegas has the third best percentage in both categories.  Dallas, Atlanta, and, by a slim margin, New York scored more than half of their two-pointers without an assist.

In the past few years, the WNBA has made more statistics available to the public on its website.  While these statistics have been available in the past and some of them have been released, the ability for anyone to access it and use it for their own work allows for new levels of insight.  This season, several new options are available.  In addition to some of the individual statistics made available in the past few years, statistics can be searched for on specific two, three, four, and five player lineups.  Also widely released for the first time are teams’ on/off ratings, which are a quick way of measuring how teams perform when certain players are on or off the court.

On/Off Rating:

With on/off rating, it is possible to see a team’s efficiency when a player is on or off the court, making it possible to tell the difference in efficiency when a player is off the court.  It is not a perfect measure of a player’s impact because it is reliant on many other factors, including the other players on the court, but it can provide unexpected observations.  The 107 players who played at least 340 minutes with a single team are included in this sample with stints with different teams not combined in these statistics.

Offense:

25 players had their team score 6 or more points per 100 possessions more when they were on the court than when they were not on the court and they are shown in the image above in order of the size of the difference in offensive efficiency.  It is no surprise that Chicago’s offense was much better with Courtney Vandersloot on the floor as both a facilitator and scorer as they tried many solutions to deal with the minutes that she was not on the court, but she was not the top player on the list.  That honor goes to Natasha Howard as Seattle’s offense was absolutely dreadful when she was off the court, but 22.4 points per 100 possessions better when she was on the court.  This type of statistic is also useful for trying to figure out whether a player might deserve more playing time.  Some of the players with lower minutes percentages played less due to working their way back from injury, but one name that stands out on this list is Marine Johannes, an offensive spark for New York in a number of games.  After joining the team late, it took her a little bit of time to settle in her role, but in 45% of available minutes, the Liberty’s offensive was scoring over 8 points more per 100 possessions.

The first measure penalizes players on teams with strong offenses overall so here are the top 25 players in terms of how efficiently the offense was with them on the court without comparing it to the offense without them.  Washington’s dominance is clear here as they hold the top eight places and Courtney Vandersloot prevented them from being the top nine.  The Los Angeles Sparks should be excited about having Candace Parker available for full minutes in the playoff as they have played well with her on the court.

Defense:

The 20 players above were the ones whose teams played better defense by the most with them on the court than with them off the court.  The surprise players at the top of the list did not play that many minutes overall, but New York’s defense was better with them playing, giving up 12.6 points per 100 possessions less with Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe on the court.  Right behind Rebecca Allen was a more expected name in Natasha Howard as Seattle would have been the league’s best defense by several points if they played the way they did while she was on the court, but played like the worst defense in the the league when she was not on the floor.  Right behind her was Ariel Atkins as she helped Washington defense and their offense when she was playing.

The 23 players above had their teams give up less than 94 points per possession when they were on the court.  Many of the players at the top of the list were not playing starters’ minutes over the course of the season.  Las Vegas had the league’s toughest defense and they were particularly stingy during the minutes that Sydney Colson played as she beat the next player on the list by three and a half points per 100 possessions.  Not surprisingly, she was not the only player from the team on the list with four teammates joining her.  While their teams played poor defense overall, Camille Little, Maite Cazorla, and Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe all made the overall list and it may be worth trying to figure out what those teams did differently with them on the court for the future.

Net:

20 players had their teams have higher net ratings by at least 10 points per 100 possessions with them on the court.  No player had a higher difference than Natasha Howard as Seattle outscored their opponents by 7.4 points per 100 possessions when she was on the court, but were outscored by 26.6 points per 100 possessions with her off the court, a total swing of 34 points per 100 possessions.  While the players on the top half of this list played heavy minutes, there are a number of players below them with lower minutes totals, especially on struggling teams that could merit additional study for additional playing time.

24 players had their teams outscore their opponents by at least 6 points per 100 possessions while they were on the court.  Washington dominated this category with the top seven places.  Connecticut was the next team to get on the list as they played well with the players in their starting lineup.  30 players had their teams play better both on offense and defense when they were on the court.

Lineups:

Not only is it now possible to easily find out how a team performs with a particular player on the court, detailed lineup data is also available.  The information is only one tool in the process of evaluating player performance, but it can be useful, especially in finding combinations that teams should try more often.

Five:

57 different lineups have been on the court together for at least 40 minutes.  Given their play as a team, it is no surprise that a Washington lineup had the best net rating as the combination of Ariel Atkins, Aerial Powers, Natasha Cloud, Elena Delle Donne, and LaToya Sanders played 91 minutes together in 9 different games and outscored their opponents by 35.6 points per 100 possessions during that time.  The same Mystics lineup with Emma Meesseman instead of Powers played 82 minutes together in 7 games and also bettered their opponents by over 30 points per 100 possessions.  The only other lineup to reach that mark was a fairly surprising Las Vegas lineup that plays very few minutes together, but has been played in many games as Dearica Hamby, Sugar Rodgers, Sydney Colson, Liz Cambage, and Tamera Young have been very strong in 60 minutes of play over 20 games.  In terms of continuity, no lineup can beat Connecticut’s starters, appearing in all but one game and playing 558 minutes, 225 minutes more than the next lineup.  Courtney Williams, Jonquel Jones, Alyssa Thomas, Shekinna Stricklen, and Jasmine Thomas have outscored their opponents by 8.7 points per possession during that time.

On the offensive end, the lineup that has had the best efficiency is a Chicago group that could see more time together in a playoff setting as Diamond DeShields, Cheyenne Parker, Astou Ndour, Courtney Vandersloot, and Allie Quigley had an efficiency of 132.7 points per 100 possessions in 65 minutes together in 10 games.  The Mystics had four of the next five most potent offensive combinations.  On defense, the Aces lineup mentioned above was the stingiest, allowing only 73.8 points per 100 possessions.  Seattle’s lineup of Mercedes Russell, Jewell Loyd, Natasha Howard, Alysha Clark, and Shavonte Zellous was next at 78.4 points given up per 100 possessions in 51 minutes over 10 games.

Four:

195 different 4 player groupings have spent at least 80 minutes on the court together.  Again, with Washington’s overall statistical domination, it is no surprise that nine of the top ten combinations are from their team.  Ariel Atkins, Emma Meesseman, Elena Delle Donne, and Latoya Sanders have been on the court at the same time for 90 minutes in 8 games, outscoring their opponents by a whopping 42.8 points per 100 possessions during that time.  The only non-Mystics groupings that broke the 120 points per 100 possessions barrier were Chicago’s Diamond DeShields, Cheyenne Parker, Astou Ndour, and Courtney Vandersloot, who only played 80 minute together over 13 games, and Phoenix’s Brianna Turner, Brittney Griner, Yvonne Turner, and Leilani Mitchell, who featured in 12 games for 96 minutes.  The Las Vegas combination of Dearica Hamby, Sydney Colson, Liz Cambage, and Tamera Young was the only group to allow less than 80 points per 100 possessions, doing so in 86 minutes over 23 games.  They were followed by Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, Lexie Brown, Danielle Robinson, and Sylvia Fowles, a group that played 115 minutes together in 26 games.  Odyssey Sims replacing Brown in that lineup was the only combination that appeared in all 34 games with Chicago’s most frequent starters playing 33 games and five different Connecticut combinations also played all but one game, being the top five sets in minutes played.

Three:

Team building these days often revolves around star trios.  194 different trios played at least 200 minutes together this season.  Washington again had the strongest combinations, boasting ten of the top eleven groupings in overall efficiency, led by Ariel Atkins, Elena Delle Donne, and LaToya Sanders, who outscored opponents by 31.3 points per 100 possessions in 496 minutes over 30 games.  The only trio to break up the Mystics party was Sydney Wiese, Chelsea Gray, and Candace Parker, who played 206 minutes together in 19 games for Los Angeles.  Washington’s lineups were particularly potent on offense, but Chicago groupings featuring Astou Ndour and two of Diamond DeShields, Courtney Vandersloot, and Allie Quigley were also quite efficient.  There was much more variety on defense with different teams occupying the top three spots.  Dearica Hamby, Sydney Colson, and Tamera Young were on the court for 211 minutes together over 29 games and gave up fewer points than any other trio per possession.  The Sparks had the next entry with a trio of Tierra Ruffin-Pratt and the Ogwumike sisters and the Phoenix’s trio of DeWanna Bonner, Leilani Mitchell, and Camille Little also gave up very few points when they were on the court together.  No trio played more together than Napheesa Collier, Odyssey Sims, and Sylvia Fowles of Minnesota, featuring in every game for a total of 754 minutes.  Connecticut’s starting lineup showed their continuity again, being ten of the next fourteen most played groupings in various combinations.  Chicago’s starting backcourt played 712 minutes together in 33 minutes while Seattle’s starting frontcourt played 663 minutes together in 31 games.

Two:

Lineup data can also be stretched out to duos as 166 pairings played at least 340 minutes together this season.  Washington pairs made up the entire top ten in net rating, led by Elena Delle Donne and Ariel Atkins, who outscored opponents by 28.7 points per 100 possessions on the court together in 622 minutes over 30 games.  A number of Connecticut pairings were efficient, led by Shekinna Stricklen and Jonquel Jones, but after them were two surprises as completely different Sparks lineups, Nneka Ogwumike and Riquna Williams and then Tierra Ruffin-Pratt and Sydney Wiese, featured.  Delle Donne and Atkins topped the charts when it came to offensive efficiency, followed by eleven other combinations of Mystics players before the Chicago couple of Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley checked in with 829 minutes played together in 33 games.  The Ogwumike sisters were reunited this season and played on the court together for 363 minutes in 29 games, outscoring opponents by more than 10 points per 100 possessions during that time, which was fueled by their defensive rating being the strongest of any pairing.  They were followed by the Delle Donne-Atkins duo and then the Minnesota newcomers Napheesa Collier and Lexie Brown.  The other new duo that was considered worth watching before the season was the twin towers in Las Vegas and they ended up playing 429 minutes together in 25 games, outscoring opponents by nearly 3 points per 100 possessions during that time behind solid defense.  The Minnesota combinations revolving around Napheessa Collier, Odyssey Sims, and Sylvia Fowles played in all the games with the one featuring Collier and Sims averaging over 27 minutes a game together for a leading total of 934 minutes.

A number of big name absences from the league this year led to fewer milestones being reached than was expected at this time last year.  Nevertheless, new players have found their way on these lists and others have climbed since last last year.  Highlighted players were in at least one game in 2019.

Points:

This is a list that was strongly affected by player absences.  Diana Taurasi was expected to extend her lead and approach the 9,000 point mark, but only ended up adding a handful of points from the total that she finished at last season.  Cappie Pondexter ended up retiring earlier than she planned and Sue Bird, Angel McCoughtry, and Maya Moore also did not add any points to their career totals.  Candice Dupree did manage to climb into the top 5 and Tina Charles jumped past a number of players into the top 10.  Sylvia Fowles is the newest player in the 5,000 point club, racing past her teammate to do so.  There are two new players on the list as DeWanna Bonner will again be in position to surge past a number of players next season and Crystal Langhorne also makes an appearance.

Rebounds:

There was almost a second consecutive season with a new rebounding leader, but Sylvia Fowles will have to wait until next season to pass Rebekkah Brunson.  She will need to continue to crash the boards as Tina Charles could follow her right into second place soon too.  There is one new player on this list as Nneka Ogwumike will approach 2,000 rebounds soon.

Assists:

Unfortunately, Sue Bird was not able to add to her total and chase the 3,000 assist mark, but there was plenty of movement on the rest of the list.  Courtney Vandersloot continued her impressive pace from recent seasons and could be chasing 2,000 assists by the end of next season.  Tanisha Wright retires in the top 10.  The two newest players on the list are Jasmine Thomas, who is already challenging the top 20, and Leilani Mitchell, who just made it to the 1,000 assist club.

Steals:

Nobody is in position to catch Tamika Catchings in this category and this is the list with the fewest number of players active this season on it.  Tanisha Wright managed to make the list before retirement.  The other new player is Candace Parker, making her the only player to be in the top 30 in all 5 of the main counting stats.

Blocks:

Brittney Griner continued her quest for the all-time record with another strong season, but she is still a number of seasons away.  The newest players on the list are DeWanna Bonner and Sancho Lyttle.

With the regular season done, let’s take a look at how players fared in some of the less traditional statistical categories.  Players included averaged at least 10 minutes per game and appeared in at least 17 games, a total of 112 players.  Teams listed are the current team for players who played for more than one team this season.

Usage:

Usage measures what percentage of offensive possessions a player terminates while she is on the court.  It has many uses, including helping understand the impact of bench players or those who play fewer minutes who carry a big offensive load when they are on the court as a few players on this list would not be considered immediate guesses in this category.  15 players terminated more than 24% of their team’s possessions this season.  Tina Charles was the main focus on offense again for New York, ending up with the highest usage of any player.  The Rookie of the Year award race has been revealing how people feel about different factors for the award.  Arike Ogunbowale is in the conversation because of her scoring and having the second highest usage helps show the scale of scoring opportunities available to her when she was on the court.  Natasha Howard was given a much larger role than last year due to injuries and she ended up third on this list.  The two highest usage players from last season ended up being teammates and it was unclear how that would impact each player.  While both saw declines in usage, especially A’ja Wilson, they did both continue to have big roles in the offense.  There were several cases of high usage trios last season becoming high usage duos to injury as Brittney Griner and DeWanna Bonner for Phoenix and Tiffany Hayes and Alex Bentley for Atlanta saw their percentages climb.

Effective Field Goal Percentage:

Effective field goal percentage gives players more credit for three point field goals than the traditional percentage, which counts all field goals as the same, regardless of location.  14 players hit the 55% threshold in this category.  It is no surprise that a known long range bomber like Allie Quigley benefits from this measure, being the only player to exceed 60% this season.  Washington’s powerful offense is explained quite clearly with this list as they had four players in the top nine.  The way that this measure still accommodates players with different approaches to scoring is shown by teammates Brittney Griner and Leilani Mitchell being next to each other on the list.

Rebound Percentage:

Rebound percentage measures the percent of available rebounds a player grabs when she is on the court.  It can also be separated into offensive and defensive rebounding, which helps considering different rebounding strategies that different teams employ.  25 players grabbed at least 7% of their own team’s misses when they were on the court and 25 players grabbed at least 16.0% of the other team’s misses when they were on the court.  Even with the separation of the two categories, fourteen players appear on both lists.

Separating the lists did not change one fact.  When Teaira McCowan was on the court, she was a force on the glass, grabbing a quarter of her opponents’ misses and grabbing more than two percentage points more of her team’s misses than any other player.  Having two lists does showcase Jessica Breland, the second best defensive rebounder, but a player who is not as active on the other end of the floor.  Atlanta had the worst defensive rebounding percentage overall, but Breland and Monique Billings certainly should not be blamed as they did their part.  Rebounding at the top end is certainly a team effort though Liz Cambage and Dearica Hamby did help Las Vegas have the best mark on the defensive end.  Connecticut’s combination of Jonquel Jones and Alyssa Thomas helped them on both ends and the addition of Theresa Plaisance late in the season could help them corral their opponents’ misses when either is off the court.

As the season has gone past the midway point, let’s take a look at home teams are stacking up in various statistical categories.

Net Rating:

The blue bar represents points scored per 100 possessions and the red bar represents points given up per 100 possessions.  The difference is the team’s net rating.  While three teams enter the break tied in the loss column at the top of the standings, there is a clear winner in offense so far this season.  The Washington Mystics are scoring nearly 9 points more per 100 possessions than any other team.  Connecticut is the next best offensive team and also tied with them in the standings while having the second best defense.  Las Vegas, on the other hand, joins these teams in the standings with a different focus, having the toughest defense by more than 3.5 points per 100 possessions.

Overall, the teams currently in playoff places are the ones with positive net ratings.  Indiana may be tied for last place in the loss column, but they have the least negative net rating among teams currently on the outside looking in as their third best offense is offset by their worst defense.  The other teams in their predicament struggle in both categories with the next three worst defenses and the three worst offenses.

Change from 2018:

The blue bar represents the change in offensive rating between the whole season last year and this season to date with a positive number meaning an improvement this season.  The red bar represents the change in defensive rating between the whole season last year and this season to date with a negative number meaning an improvement this season. The green bar represents the change in net rating between the whole season last year and this season to date with a positive number meaning an improvement this season.

Much has been made about the decrease in scoring this season and this chart clearly shows the difference as Indiana made a solid improvement to their offense and Washington is seeing an incremental improvement, but the rest of the league has seen drops of more than 2.5 points per 100 possessions.  Attlanta is the only team with a worse defense, compounding their issues in a season where their offensive output has declined by more than 11 points per 100 possessions, giving them the worst decrease in net rating among all teams.  Star absences may also help to explain some of the other teams that had precipitous drops in offensive output.  Chicago still has a below average defense, but their improvement in that category from the worst in the league last season helps explain their rise in the standings.  Like the Sky, Las Vegas did not have an increase in offense, but their defensive improvement by more than 15 points per 100 possessions to the best in the league gave them the best net rating improvement.  Indiana improved in both categories like Washington, but they are still outside the playoff picture and New York’s overall improvement still leaves them short of their postseason aspirations for now.

Rebounding:

The y-axis represents the percentage of opponent misses that a team grabs and the x-axis represents percentage of a team’s own misses that it grabs.  Teams further to the right are proficient at offensive rebounding and teams higher up are proficient at defensive rebounding.  Using rebounding percentage as a measure of rebounding is more useful because it is independent of the number of missed shots.  Separating offensive and defensive rebounding helps as well because while defensive rebounding is important for all teams, offensive rebounding is often based on strategic choices by a team.

Connecticut takes care of the boards on both ends of the floor, grabbing the highest percentage of their own misses, a category they were league leaders in last year, and having the second best defensive rebounding percentage.  Las Vegas makes it easier on their defense by corralling their opponents’ misses better than any other team.  Dallas may grab the second highest percentage of offensive rebounds, but all the extra opportunities have not helped their offensive efficiency.  Phoenix rebounds the lowest percentage of their own misses by more than three percentage points, two percentage points lower than their league low from last year.  Atlanta is struggling with defensive rebounding despite being above average on the other end of the floor.

Home vs. Road:

Homecourt advantage has been a known effect in basketball for a long time so it should come as no surprise that every team has a better net rating at home than on the road so far this season.  The blue bars represent the difference in points per 100 possessions scored at home.  The red bars represent the difference in points per 100 possessions give up at home with a negative number meaning a better defense at home.  The green bar is the difference in net rating at home and teams are listed in order of how much more efficient they are overall at home.  Atlanta is the only team with worse offense at home, but only by a slim margin while Phoenix is the only team to play worse defense at home.  The disparity is so strong that only Washington and Las Vegas have positive net ratings on the road.  Given the teams different performances depending on venue, there could be insights to be gained in the playoff chase by how many games teams have left at home.

Los Angeles could be poised for a strong rest of the season, having battled through a schedule with more road games than anyone else.  With twice as many home games left as road games, they should be in good shape even though their homecourt advantage is only about average and they will continue to not have their full roster for a number of games.  Chicago has the most road games left of any team and while their offense has been about the same everywhere, their defense is worse on the road by a wider margin than any team.  Unlike the other two top teams so far, Connecticut plays poorly on the road, sitting in the middle of the pack in net rating away from home.  At home, they have the second best offensive and defensive ratings, only behind Washington on offense and Las Vegas on defense, thus giving them the biggest overall homecourt advantage.  While they look to be outside of the playoffs, Dallas will still be on the hunt for their first road win, but their struggles are clear as they have a positive net rating at home, which explains their 5-5 record there, but the play worse on the road by the second biggest margin.