← NBA seasons

1991-92 NBA season

27 teams · 33 weeks · through 1992-06-14 · Elo from the project workbook

Chicago Bulls won the title. They also finished top rated, at 1717.

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
BullsTrail BlazersCavaliersJazz27 of 27 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
67-15 +15-7 · Central · seed 1
1717
-23 yr
2
57-25 +13-8 · Pacific · seed 1
1672
-4 yr
3
57-25 +9-8 · Central · seed 3
1636
+190 yr
4
Utah JazzConf. Finals
55-27 +9-7 · Midwest · seed 2
1619
+24 yr
5
Phoenix SunsPlayoffs
53-29 +4-4 · Pacific · seed 4
1614
+22 yr
6
51-31 +6-6 · Atlantic · seed 4
1605
+123 yr
7
51-31 +6-4 · Atlantic · seed 2
1594
+18 yr
8
55-27 +1-3 · Pacific · seed 3
1578
+52 yr
9
47-35 +4-5 · Pacific · seed 6
1559
+44 yr
10
45-37 +2-3 · Pacific · seed 7
1535
+126 yr
11
47-35 +0-3 · Midwest · seed 5
1531
-50 yr
12
48-34 +2-3 · Central · seed 5
1529
-1 yr
Show all 27 teams
13
40-42 +0-3 · Central · seed 7
1524
+13 yr
14
43-39 +1-3 · Pacific · seed 8
1487
-145 yr
15
42-40 · Midwest
1475
-90 yr
16
40-42 +1-3 · Atlantic · seed 6
1475
+133 yr
17
38-44 · Central
1469
-41 yr
18
35-47 · Atlantic
1441
-66 yr
19
Miami HeatPlayoffs
38-44 +0-3 · Atlantic · seed 8
1429
+95 yr
20
31-51 · Central
1418
-95 yr
21
31-51 · Central
1396
+31 yr
22
29-53 · Pacific
1391
+39 yr
23
25-57 · Atlantic
1363
-16 yr
24
21-61 · Atlantic
1335
-76 yr
25
22-60 · Midwest
1311
-60 yr
26
15-67 · Midwest
1301
-96 yr
27
24-58 · Midwest
1298
+6 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.

Bulls won the 1992 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
3rd Team All NBA

All-Star game

Orlando Arena, Orlando · MVP Magic Johnson

Magic JohnsonMVPLakers · #12
Brad DaughertyCavaliers · #4
Charles Barkley76ers · #6
Dennis RodmanPistons · #2
Dominique WilkinsHawks · #7
Isiah ThomasPistons · #10
Joe DumarsPistons · #3
Kevin WillisHawks · #1
Show all 27 selections
Larry BirdCeltics · #12
Mark PriceCavaliers · #2
Michael AdamsBullets · #1
Michael JordanBulls · #8
Patrick EwingKnicks · #6
Reggie LewisCeltics · #1
Scottie PippenBulls · #2
Chris MullinWarriors · #4
Clyde DrexlerTrail Blazers · #6
Dan MajerleSuns · #1
David RobinsonSpurs · #3
Dikembe MutumboNuggets · #1
Hakeem OlajuwonRockets · #7
James WorthyLakers · #7
Jeff HornacekSuns · #1
John StocktonJazz · #4
Karl MaloneJazz · #5
Otis ThorpeRockets · #1
Tim HardawayWarriors · #2

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
14 Jun 92 · NBA Finals
97-93
2.21
2
5 Jun 92 · NBA Finals
115-104OT
2.20
3
29 May 92 · Conf. Finals
99-94
1.97
4
10 Jun 92 · NBA Finals
93-88
1.82
5
28 May 92 · Conf. Finals
105-97
1.76
6
11 May 92 · Semifinals
153-1512OT
1.74
7
26 May 92 · Conf. Finals
127-121OT
1.72
8
7 Jun 92 · NBA Finals
94-84
1.57
9
12 Jun 92 · NBA Finals
119-106
1.56
10
5 May 92 · Semifinals
94-89
1.42
Show all 20 games
11
10 May 92 · Semifinals
114-112OT
1.40
12
24 May 92 · Conf. Finals
121-112
1.37
13
23 May 92 · Conf. Finals
105-96
1.33
14
5 May 92 · Semifinals
113-111
1.31
15
22 May 92 · Conf. Finals
97-89
1.29
16
29 Apr 92 · Quarterfinals
121-119OT
1.28
17
9 May 92 · Semifinals
124-117
1.24
18
14 May 92 · Semifinals
100-86
1.23
19
113-112
1.22
20
10 May 92 · Semifinals
93-86
1.22

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, 1991-92.