← NBA seasons

1983-84 NBA season

23 teams · 34 weeks · through 1984-06-17 · Elo from the project workbook

Boston Celtics won the title. They also finished top rated, at 1669.

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
CelticsLakersBucksNets23 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
62-20 +15-8 · Atlantic · seed 1
1669
+89 yr
2
54-28 +14-7 · Pacific · seed 1
1607
+7 yr
3
Milwaukee BucksConf. Finals
50-32 +8-8 · Central · seed 2
1589
-11 yr
4
45-37 +5-6 · Atlantic · seed 6
1586
+31 yr
5
49-33 +2-3 · Central · seed 4
1579
+103 yr
6
47-35 +6-6 · Atlantic · seed 5
1572
-7 yr
7
52-30 +2-3 · Atlantic · seed 3
1568
-142 yr
8
Phoenix SunsConf. Finals
41-41 +9-8 · Pacific · seed 6
1540
-59 yr
9
48-34 +2-3 · Pacific · seed 3
1529
-11 yr
10
43-39 +4-6 · Midwest · seed 4
1510
+52 yr
11
40-42 +2-3 · Central · seed 7
1504
-1 yr
12
42-40 +2-3 · Pacific · seed 5
1502
-50 yr
Show all 23 teams
13
Utah JazzPlayoffs
45-37 +5-6 · Midwest · seed 2
1502
+97 yr
14
38-44 +2-3 · Midwest · seed 7
1493
-45 yr
15
37-45 · Midwest
1489
-114 yr
16
38-44 +0-3 · Midwest · seed 8
1470
-49 yr
17
35-47 +1-3 · Atlantic · seed 8
1454
-82 yr
18
37-45 · Pacific
1439
+11 yr
19
30-52 · Pacific
1415
+51 yr
20
26-56 · Central
1390
+38 yr
21
29-53 · Midwest
1388
+110 yr
22
28-54 · Central
1385
+44 yr
23
27-55 · Central
1368
-31 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.

Celtics won the 1984 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

McNichols Sports Arena, Denver · MVP Isiah Thomas

Isiah ThomasMVPPistons · #3
Andrew Toney76ers · #2
Bernard KingKnicks · #2
Bill LaimbeerPistons · #2
Jeff RutlandBullets · #1
Julius Erving76ers · #13
Kelly TripuckaPistons · #2
Kevin McHaleCeltics · #1
Show all 24 selections
Larry BirdCeltics · #5
Otis BirdsongNets · #4
Robert ParishCeltics · #4
Sidney MoncriefBucks · #3
Adrian DantleyJazz · #4
Alex EnglishNuggets · #3
George GervinSpurs · #11
Jim Paxson IITrail Blazers · #2
Kareem Abdul-JabbarLakers · #14
Kiki VandewegheNuggets · #2
Magic JohnsonLakers · #4
Mark AguirreMavericks · #1
Ralph SampsonRockets · #1
Rickey GreenJazz · #1
Walter DavisSuns · #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
6 Jun 84 · NBA Finals
129-125OT
2.08
2
12 Jun 84 · NBA Finals
111-102
2.01
3
27 May 84 · NBA Finals
115-109
1.82
4
10 Jun 84 · NBA Finals
119-108
1.82
5
31 May 84 · NBA Finals
124-121OT
1.81
6
23 May 84 · Conf. Finals
126-121
1.76
7
25 May 84 · Conf. Finals
99-97
1.70
8
11 May 84 · Semifinals
106-104
1.69
9
10 May 84 · Semifinals
98-97
1.65
10
23 May 84 · Conf. Finals
115-108
1.60
Show all 20 games
11
27 Apr 84 · Quarterfinals
127-123OT
1.55
12
21 May 84 · Conf. Finals
122-113
1.53
13
18 May 84 · Conf. Finals
135-127OT
1.51
14
8 Jun 84 · NBA Finals
121-108
1.37
15
26 Apr 84 · Quarterfinals
101-98
1.35
16
6 May 84 · Semifinals
118-113
1.30
17
19 May 84 · Conf. Finals
109-100
1.28
18
6 May 84 · Semifinals
122-115OT
1.21
19
29 Apr 84 · Semifinals
106-100
1.19
20
21 Apr 84 · Quarterfinals
111-108OT
1.19

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, 1983-84.