NBA’s easiest, toughest schedules in December

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We’re already three days into the month, but the time to evaluate the December schedule is now after Emirates NBA Cup Group Play is complete and the league has announced the 30 games that will be played from Dec. 10-16.
Here’s a schedule breakdown for December, including 25 games that have already been played.
Note 1: To calculate the strength of schedule for the eight teams in the NBA Cup quarterfinals, their second tournament game is imagined as a neutral-site game against an opponent that’s the average (regarding record and where they rank offensively and defensively) of the two teams they could 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 45-36 (.556) in rest-advantage games, 24-18 (.571) at home and 21-18 (.538) on the road, through Dec. 3.
Here’s a look at the December schedule for every team, sorted from the toughest (regarding cumulative opponent winning percentage) to the easiest:
OppPCT = Cumulative opponent winning percentage (as of Dec. 3)
B2B = Back-to-backs (includes two Nov. 31-Dec. 1 back-to-backs)
H | R = Home games | Road games
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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 X.
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