← NBA seasons

1969-70 NBA season

14 teams · 30 weeks · through 1970-05-10 · Elo from the project workbook

New York Knicks won the title. They also finished top rated, at 1599.

Jump to any season1946-472026-27

The race

Elo rating by week. Higher is stronger; 1500 is average.

How this is measured

Elo moves after every game by how surprising the result was and by how big the margin was, damped so a blowout by a heavy favourite counts for less than the same blowout by an underdog. One pool per season, so the ratings are comparable across the whole league but not across eras.

Week 0 is the preseason seed, carried over from the previous season and adjusted by hand for the roster as it stands. It is an input to the season, not a result of it.

full season
KnicksBucksBulletsLakers14 of 14 shown · tap or drag any point for that week · tap a line to lock it

Tap or drag on the chart: the nearest team's rating that week.

The table

Where every team stood, scrubbed to the week above.

How this is measured

Three records, because they are three different things. Regular season is the 82-game year and is what the seeding comes from. Playoffs is the postseason run, blank for a team that did not make it, which is not the same as 0-0. Total is the two added together. The Elo column keeps moving through the postseason, so a team can climb after its regular season has finished.

1
60-22 +12-7 · Eastern · seed 1
1599
-14 yr
2
Milwaukee BucksConf. Finals
56-26 +5-5 · Eastern · seed 2
1570
+253 yr
3
50-32 +3-4 · Eastern · seed 3
1543
+18 yr
4
46-36 +11-7 · Western · seed 2
1525
-67 yr
5
Atlanta HawksConf. Finals
48-34 +4-5 · Western · seed 1
1497
-3 yr
6
42-40 +1-4 · Eastern · seed 4
1486
-64 yr
7
36-46 · Western
1446
+73 yr
8
34-48 · Eastern
1444
-121 yr
9
Phoenix SunsPlayoffs
39-43 +3-4 · Western · seed 4
1439
+228 yr
10
36-46 · Eastern
1423
-5 yr
11
39-43 +1-4 · Western · seed 3
1417
+37 yr
12
31-51 · Eastern
1389
+3 yr
Show all 14 teams
13
27-55 · Western
1371
-26 yr
14
30-52 · Western
1364
-63 yr

The postseason

Every series, round by round, with the seeds that met.

How this is measured

Rounds run left to right in the order they were played. The field, the number of rounds and the series length have all changed repeatedly, so the shape here is whatever that season actually had rather than a modern bracket imposed on it. From 2020 the play-in sits below the bracket: those games decided who entered, so a team beaten there did not have a playoff run.

Knicks won the 1970 title.

The honours

Who won what, and who was picked.

How this is measured

Every other section on this page is a club. These are the people: the individual awards, the All-NBA teams and the All-Star selections, all as the workbook records them. A player’s All-Star entry carries which appearance it was for them, so a seventh selection reads differently from a first.

Awards

All-NBA

1st Team All NBA
2nd Team All NBA

All-Star game

The Spectrum, Philadelphia · MVP Willis Reed

Willis ReedMVPKnicks · #6
Billy Cunningham76ers · #2
Bob NetolickyPacers · #3
Bob VergaCougars · #2
Charles WilliamsPipers · #2
Darel CarrierColonels · #3
Dave DeBusschereKnicks · #4
Donnie FreemanFloridians · #3
Show all 50 selections
Doug MoeCougars · #3
Flynn RobinsonBucks · #1
Freddie LewisPacers · #2
Gene MooreColonels · #1
Gus JohnsonBullets · #4
Hal Greer76ers · #10
Jimmy WalkerPistons · #1
John HavlicekCeltics · #5
Kareem Abdul-JabbarBucks · #1
Levern TartNets · #2
Louie DampierColonels · #3
Mel DanielsPacers · #3
Oscar RobertsonRoyals · #10
Roger BrownPacers · #2
Tom Van ArsdaleRoyals · #1
Walt FrazierKnicks · #1
Bill BridgesHawks · #3
Chet WalkerBulls · #4
Cincinnatus PowellChaparrals · #1
Connie HawkinsSuns · #3
Dick Van ArsdaleSuns · #2
Elgin BaylorLakers · #11
Elvin HayesRockets · #2
Gerald GovanBuccaneers · #1
Glen CombsChaparrals · #1
Jeff MullinsWarriors · #2
Jerry WestLakers · #10
Jimmy JonesBuccaneers · #3
Joe CaldwellHawks · #2
John BeasleyChaparrals · #3
Larry BrownCapitals · #3
Larry JonesRockets · #3
Lenny WilkensSupersonics · #7
Lou HudsonHawks · #2
Nate ThurmondWarriors · #5
Red RobbinsBuccaneers · #3
Rick BarryCapitals · #4
Spencer HaywoodRockets · #1
Steve JonesBuccaneers · #1
Warren DavisStars · #2
Warren JabaliCapitals · #1

The best games

The 20 highest-rated games of the season, best first.

How this is measured

Game Score is a composite rating of how good a game was to watch, built from how close it finished, how much the result went against the odds, how far the ratings moved, what was at stake and how highly rated both sides were. It is roughly zero-centred, so an average game sits near zero and anything past two is rare. It is the same metric the all-time and by-decade boards use, so a game keeps the same score wherever it appears.

1
1 May 70 · NBA Finals
121-115OT
1.72
2
27 Apr 70 · NBA Finals
105-103
1.69
3
29 Apr 70 · NBA Finals
111-108OT
1.65
4
8 May 70 · NBA Finals
113-99
1.48
5
4 May 70 · NBA Finals
107-100
1.41
6
13 Apr 70 · Conf. Finals
112-111
1.41
7
12 Apr 70 · Conf. Finals
119-115
1.29
8
17 Apr 70 · Conf. Finals
101-96
1.29
9
5 Apr 70 · Semifinals
96-87
1.21
10
125-118OT
1.18
Show all 20 games
11
6 Apr 70 · Semifinals
127-114
1.18
12
11 Apr 70 · Conf. Finals
110-102
1.16
13
17 Apr 70 · Conf. Finals
115-114OT
1.14
14
26 Mar 70 · Semifinals
120-1172OT
1.13
15
125-124OT
1.12
16
24 Apr 70 · NBA Finals
124-112
1.10
17
19 Apr 70 · Conf. Finals
117-105
1.09
18
142-137OT
1.08
19
3 Apr 70 · Semifinals
115-106
1.01
20
1 Apr 70 · Semifinals
118-111
1.01

Sources

Weekly Elo ratings and records are maintained in the project's NBA workbook and refreshed when it is updated. Season results and honours come from the same workbook. Basketball-Reference, 1969-70.