A brief look at current NBA trends, with a focus on daily fantasy sports.
The Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs are dominating tough schedules
The Rockets’ +6.67 net rating over the last 10 games rates 6th in the NBA, but they’ve faced the 2nd toughest schedule in that time (+2.85). That gives them the best opponent-adjusted net rating during that time at +9.52.
The Spurs are in a similar spot – they have the 8th best net rating (+6.52), but faced the 3rd toughest schedule (+2.75), giving them the 2nd best opponent-adjusted net rating (+9.27).
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ defense is somehow getting even worse.
Cleveland has been bad at defense all season (118.68 DRTG, worst in the league), but they’re taking it to a new level over the last 10 games. Their defensive rating of 126.29 is the worst in the league during that time by nearly 9 points.
Amazingly, that understates how bad they’ve been. They’ve faced the third easiest schedule defensively, with their opponent’s average offensive rating at 108.81. That gives them an opponent-adjusted defensive rating of +17.48, far worse than the 2nd worst team, Charlotte at +7.02.
The Miami Heat have become the toughest daily fantasy sports match-up in the NBA.
Adjusting for the quality of their opponent, the Heat have been the toughest DFS match-up for point guards, power forwards, and centers over the last 10 games. That makes them the toughest match-up overall during that time.
The Heat have a top-10 defensive rating for the season, and have improved to 5th over the past 10 games (105.09).
However, it is their slowing pace that makes them truly difficult as a DFS match-up. Their pace of 95.15 over the last 10 games is the 2nd slowest. The Bulls actually have the slowest pace during that time (94.04), but their DRTG of 115.34 makes them a league-average DFS match-up.