Ups and Downs: Team Performance in Best-of-Seven Playoff Series
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Tim B. Swartz
This paper explores the impact of the status of a playoff series on team performance in a best-of-seven playoff format. Betting line data are collected on more than 1200 playoff matches from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) from 2003 through 2011. Regression methodology is used to suggest that teams in desperate situations (i.e., those teams close to elimination in a series) tend to have better results than when they are not in desperate situations. However, there also seem to exist situations where the mountain is too steep to climb, and desperation leads to capitulation. In comparing the two leagues, it appears that the effects due to the status of a series are less prominent in the NHL than in the NBA.
©2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Letter from the Editor
- The Next Step
- Article
- A Hierarchical Bayesian Variable Selection Approach to Major League Baseball Hitting Metrics
- Ups and Downs: Team Performance in Best-of-Seven Playoff Series
- The Penalty Shot/Optional Minor Choice in Ice Hockey
- Using Local Correlation to Explain Success in Baseball
- Exploring Competition Performance in Decathlon Using Semi-Parametric Latent Variable Models
- Going for the Green: A Simulation Study of Qualifying Success Probabilities in Professional Golf
- Rule of Tangent for Win-By-Two Games
- Effect of Differences in Kicking Legs, Kick Directions, and Kick Skill on Kicking Accuracy in Soccer Players
- The Methodology of Officially Recognized International Sports Rating Systems
- Scoring Strategies for the Underdog: A General, Quantitative Method for Determining Optimal Sports Strategies
- Using Tree Ensembles to Analyze National Baseball Hall of Fame Voting Patterns: An Application to Discrimination in BBWAA Voting
- An Estimate of How Hitting, Pitching, Fielding, and Basestealing Impact Team Winning Percentages in Baseball
