← NBA seasons

1993-94 NBA season

27 teams · 34 weeks · through 1994-06-26 · Elo from the project workbook

Houston Rockets won the title. The season's highest rating belonged to Seattle Supersonics, at 1657.

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
SupersonicsKnicksRocketsSuns27 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
63-19 +2-3 · Pacific · seed 1
1657
+33 yr
2
57-25 +14-11 · Atlantic · seed 2
1648
-12 yr
3
58-24 +15-8 · Midwest · seed 2
1636
+27 yr
4
Phoenix SunsPlayoffs
56-26 +6-4 · Pacific · seed 3
1622
-26 yr
5
Indiana PacersConf. Finals
47-35 +10-6 · Central · seed 5
1614
+81 yr
6
55-27 +1-3 · Midwest · seed 4
1599
+40 yr
7
Utah JazzConf. Finals
53-29 +8-8 · Midwest · seed 5
1597
+67 yr
8
55-27 +6-4 · Central · seed 3
1592
-83 yr
9
57-25 +5-6 · Central · seed 1
1591
+81 yr
10
50-32 +0-3 · Atlantic · seed 4
1583
+94 yr
11
47-35 +0-3 · Central · seed 6
1577
-45 yr
12
42-40 +6-6 · Midwest · seed 8
1573
+129 yr
Show all 27 teams
13
47-35 +1-3 · Pacific · seed 7
1556
-11 yr
14
45-37 +1-3 · Atlantic · seed 7
1541
+23 yr
15
50-32 +0-3 · Pacific · seed 6
1539
+77 yr
16
Miami HeatPlayoffs
42-40 +2-3 · Atlantic · seed 8
1524
+52 yr
17
41-41 · Central
1505
-1 yr
18
32-50 · Atlantic
1424
-111 yr
19
33-49 · Pacific
1419
-30 yr
20
28-54 · Pacific
1391
+19 yr
21
27-55 · Pacific
1378
-137 yr
22
24-58 · Atlantic
1353
+24 yr
23
25-57 · Atlantic
1341
-31 yr
24
20-62 · Central
1328
-175 yr
25
20-62 · Central
1325
-59 yr
26
20-62 · Midwest
1296
-2 yr
27
13-69 · Midwest
1269
+49 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.

Rockets won the 1994 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
  • Charles BarkleySuns
  • David RobinsonSpurs
  • Kevin JohnsonSuns
  • Mitch RichmondKings
  • Shawn KempSupersonics
3rd Team All NBA

All-Star game

Target Center, Minneapolis · MVP Scottie Pippen

Scottie PippenMVPBulls · #4
Alonzo MourningHornets · #1
B.J. ArmstrongBulls · #1
Charles OakleyKnicks · #1
Derrick ColemanNets · #1
Dominique WilkinsHawks · #9
Horace GrantBulls · #1
John StarksKnicks · #1
Show all 26 selections
Kenny AndersonNets · #1
Mark PriceCavaliers · #4
Mookie BlaylockHawks · #1
Patrick EwingKnicks · #8
Shaquille O'NealMagic · #2
Charles BarkleySuns · #8
Clifford RobinsonTrail Blazers · #1
Clyde DrexlerTrail Blazers · #8
Danny ManningClippers · #2
David RobinsonSpurs · #5
Hakeem OlajuwonRockets · #9
John StocktonJazz · #6
Karl MaloneJazz · #7
Kevin JohnsonSuns · #3
Latrell SprewellWarriors · #1
Mitch RichmondKings · #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
22 Jun 94 · NBA Finals
90-84
2.08
2
19 Jun 94 · NBA Finals
86-84
2.03
3
5 Jun 94 · Conf. Finals
94-90
1.90
4
12 Jun 94 · NBA Finals
93-89
1.78
5
3 Jun 94 · Conf. Finals
98-91
1.75
6
17 Jun 94 · NBA Finals
91-84
1.57
7
10 Jun 94 · NBA Finals
91-83
1.53
8
7 May 94 · Quarterfinals
98-94OT
1.47
9
11 May 94 · Semifinals
124-117OT
1.45
10
1 Jun 94 · Conf. Finals
93-86
1.45
Show all 20 games
11
8 Jun 94 · NBA Finals
85-78
1.44
12
21 May 94 · Semifinals
104-94
1.43
13
15 Jun 94 · NBA Finals
91-82
1.41
14
29 May 94 · Conf. Finals
80-78
1.38
15
19 May 94 · Semifinals
94-91
1.37
16
22 May 94 · Semifinals
87-77
1.31
17
25 May 94 · Conf. Finals
104-99
1.28
18
30 May 94 · Conf. Finals
83-77
1.27
19
5 May 94 · Quarterfinals
94-85OT
1.25
20
17 May 94 · Semifinals
109-1012OT
1.23

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, 1993-94.