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NBA Storylines: Easiest, toughest schedules in December – NBA.com
Breaking down the strength of every team's upcoming schedule in December.
John Schuhmann
The Pelicans, who will play in the In-Season Tournament quarterfinals, have the league’s easiest schedule in December.
Through Thursday, the season is 22% complete, with teams having averaged a little more than 18 games played. So we’re almost at that point (20 games) where we have a pretty good idea of how good (or bad) most teams are.
That also means that we have a pretty good idea of how tough their schedule is. With that in mind (and with Friday being the start of a new month), here’s a look at every team’s strength of schedule for December.
Note 1: To calculate the strength of schedule for the eight teams in the In-Season Tournament quarterfinals, their second tournament game is imagined as a neutral-site game against an opponent that’s the average (in regard to record and where they rank offensively and defensively) of the two teams they could possibly play in the semifinals.
Note 2: A rest-advantage game (or rest-disadvantage game) is one where one team played the day/night before, but the other (the team with the advantage) did not. Teams are 43-26 (.623) in rest-advantage games thus far this season, 25-10 (.714) at home and 18-16 (.529) on the road.
Western Conference strength of schedule
Here’s a breakdown of the December schedule for every team in the West:
OppPCT = Cumulative opponent winning percentage (as of Nov. 30)
B2B = Back-to-backs (includes Thursday-Friday back-to-backs this week)
H | R = Home games | Road games (will change for the two teams that lose in the In-Season Tournament quarterfinals)
Eastern Conference strength of schedule
Here’s a breakdown of the December schedule for every team in the East:
OppPCT = Cumulative opponent winning percentage (as of Nov. 30)
B2B = Back-to-backs (includes Thursday-Friday back-to-backs this week)
H | R = Home games | Road games (will change for the two teams that lose in the In-Season Tournament quarterfinals)
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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