The Ranking Prediction of NBA Playoffs Based on Improved PageRank Algorithm

Abstract

It is of great significance to predict the results accurately based on the statistics of sports competition for participants research, commercial cooperation, advertising, and gambling profit. Aiming at the phenomenon that the PageRank page sorting algorithm is prone to subject deviation, the category similarity between pages is introduced into the PageRank algorithm. In the PR value calculation formula of the PageRank algorithm, the factor W(u, v) between pages is added to replace the original Nu (the number of links to page u). In this way, the content category between pages is considered, and the shortcoming of theme deviation will be improved. The time feedback factor in the PageRank-time algorithm is used for reference, and the time feedback factor is added to the first improved PR value calculation formula. Based on statistics from 1230 games during the NBA 2018-2019 regular season, this paper ranks the team strength with improved PageRank algorithm and compares the results with the ranking of regular-season points and the result of playoffs. The results show that it is consistent with the regular-season points ranking in the eastern division by the use of improved PageRank algorithm, but there is a difference in the second ranking in the western division. In the prediction of top four in playoffs, it predicts three of the four teams.