← NBA seasons

1982-83 NBA season

23 teams · 32 weeks · through 1983-06-05 · Elo from the project workbook

Philadelphia 76ers won the title. They also finished top rated, at 1710.

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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
76ersSpursBucksLakers23 of 23 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
65-17 +12-1 · Atlantic · seed 1
1710
+46 yr
2
San Antonio SpursConf. Finals
53-29 +6-5 · Midwest · seed 2
1603
+87 yr
3
Milwaukee BucksConf. Finals
51-31 +5-4 · Central · seed 2
1601
-26 yr
4
58-24 +8-7 · Pacific · seed 1
1600
-56 yr
5
Phoenix SunsPlayoffs
53-29 +1-2 · Pacific · seed 3
1599
+45 yr
6
56-26 +2-5 · Atlantic · seed 3
1580
-93 yr
7
44-38 +2-4 · Atlantic · seed 5
1579
+144 yr
8
49-33 +0-2 · Atlantic · seed 4
1555
+31 yr
9
48-34 +0-2 · Pacific · seed 4
1552
+0 yr
10
46-36 +3-4 · Pacific · seed 5
1540
+43 yr
11
45-37 +3-5 · Midwest · seed 6
1538
+14 yr
12
42-40 · Atlantic
1536
-17 yr
Show all 23 teams
13
45-37 · Midwest
1520
+92 yr
14
43-39 +1-2 · Central · seed 6
1506
-19 yr
15
37-45 · Central
1476
+13 yr
16
38-44 · Midwest
1458
+83 yr
17
30-52 · Pacific
1428
-91 yr
18
30-52 · Midwest
1405
+42 yr
19
28-54 · Central
1400
-64 yr
20
25-57 · Pacific
1363
+43 yr
21
20-62 · Central
1353
-89 yr
22
23-59 · Central
1342
+58 yr
23
14-68 · Midwest
1278
-243 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.

76ers won the 1983 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 Forum, Los Angeles · MVP Julius Erving

Julius ErvingMVP76ers · #12
Andrew Toney76ers · #1
Bill LaimbeerPistons · #1
Buck WilliamsNets · #2
Isiah ThomasPistons · #2
Larry BirdCeltics · #4
Marques JohnsonBucks · #4
Maurice Cheeks76ers · #1
Show all 24 selections
Moses Malone76ers · #7
Reggie TheusBulls · #2
Robert ParishCeltics · #3
Sidney MoncriefBucks · #2
Alex EnglishNuggets · #2
Artis GilmoreSpurs · #10
David ThompsonSupersonics · #5
George GervinSpurs · #10
Gus WilliamsSupersonics · #2
Jamaal WilkesLakers · #3
Jim Paxson IITrail Blazers · #1
Kareem Abdul-JabbarLakers · #13
Kiki VandewegheNuggets · #1
Magic JohnsonLakers · #3
Maurice LucasSuns · #5

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
31 May 83 · NBA Finals
115-108
1.91
2
20 May 83 · Conf. Finals
101-100
1.90
3
18 May 83 · Conf. Finals
117-112
1.84
4
22 May 83 · NBA Finals
113-107
1.65
5
15 May 83 · Conf. Finals
100-94
1.65
6
1 May 83 · Semifinals
105-102
1.50
7
8 May 83 · Conf. Finals
111-109OT
1.50
8
24 Apr 83 · Quarterfinals
117-112OT
1.40
9
15 May 83 · Conf. Finals
129-121
1.40
10
26 May 83 · NBA Finals
103-93
1.39
Show all 20 games
11
18 May 83 · Conf. Finals
115-103
1.35
12
14 May 83 · Conf. Finals
104-96
1.34
13
10 May 83 · Conf. Finals
122-113
1.32
14
30 Apr 83 · Semifinals
107-105
1.29
15
11 May 83 · Conf. Finals
87-81
1.26
16
29 Apr 83 · Semifinals
127-126OT
1.25
17
112-109
1.21
18
115-110
1.17
19
122-120OT
1.16
20
29 Apr 83 · Semifinals
95-91
1.16

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, 1982-83.