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2011–2012 <strong>NBA</strong> OPPONENT BREAKDOWN<br />
This season, there will be an unusual distribution of opponents<br />
because of the shortened season. Normally, each<br />
team in the league has a home-and-home series with every<br />
team in the other conference. That is, the Hawks, who are in the<br />
Eastern Conference, will host every Western Conference team once<br />
and they will visit every Western conference team once.<br />
This season, however, each team will only play 18 inter-conference<br />
games instead of 30. These eighteen games will consist of three<br />
of the normal home and home series, six single home games and six<br />
single road games. A complete listing of these match-ups are given<br />
on the facing page. For example, we can see that the Hawks play<br />
a home-and-home series with the Trailblazers, Suns and Clippers<br />
this season. That is, the Hawks play once at home and once on<br />
the road vs the Trailblazers, Suns and Clippers this season. Also, in<br />
the center column we see that the Hawks have home games vs the<br />
Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Warriors, Thunder, Jazz and Mavericks.<br />
Atlanta does not play these six teams on the road this season. In<br />
the final column, we see that the Hawks have to visit the Rockets,<br />
Spurs Hornets, Lakers, Kings and Nuggets. Atlanta will not host<br />
these six teams this season.<br />
Of course, Eastern Conference teams would prefer that their<br />
three home-and-home series vs the Western Conference teams be<br />
against teams like; Minnesota, Sacramento and perhaps the LA<br />
Clippers rather than teams like the Lakers, Mavericks and Thunder.<br />
In a normal season, each team would play 52 games with teams<br />
in their own conference. This season, however, each team only will<br />
play 48 intraconference games. So, most of the missing games this<br />
season are interconference (East vs West) games.<br />
The intraconference games are divided into three groups. Each<br />
team will face six opponents that they will play four times – two at<br />
each site. There will be four interconference opponents that each<br />
team will play three times – two at home and one on the road.<br />
Finally, there will be four interconference opponents that each<br />
team will play three times – one at home and two on the road.<br />
For example, we see that the Hawks play a full four-game season<br />
series vs the; Nets, Heat, Bulls, Bobcats, Raptors and Pistons. In<br />
the center column, we see that the Hawks get two home games<br />
and one road game against the; Wizards, Cavs, Knicks and Celtics.<br />
Finally, the Hawks get one home and two road games vs the Pacers,<br />
76ers, Bucks and Magic.<br />
<strong>NBA</strong> System<br />
4 | KillerSports.com<br />
In a similar fashion, an Eastern Conference team would prefer<br />
that the six other Eastern Conference teams they have to play four<br />
times are relatively weak opponents. It appears that the Nets have<br />
a favorable schedule in this aspect, as their four-games series this<br />
season are against the; Hawks, Bobcats, Cavs, Pacers, Raptors and<br />
Sixers. Nice.<br />
In the Western Conference, we see that the Utah Jazz are the only<br />
team in the league that has four games with the Lakers, Mavericks<br />
and Spurs this season. Tough.<br />
Let’s take a closer look at the bottom table to see which teams<br />
got tough and which teams were assigned easy non-conference<br />
opponents for their three home-and-home series.<br />
The interesting, but understandable, scheduling feature here is<br />
that both the Heat and the Celtics have to play the Lakers, Thunder<br />
and Mavericks twice each this season. The <strong>NBA</strong> schedule-makers<br />
are no dummies. They know which games will draw an audience.<br />
The Bulls, for some reason, got off relatively easy here, as their three<br />
Western Conference home-and-home series this season are against<br />
the Grizzlies, Hornets and Kings.<br />
Other Eastern Conference opponents with favorable Western<br />
Conference opponents are the Pacers and the Pistons. Indiana gets<br />
the Warriors, Hornets and Timberwolves twice each and the Pistons,<br />
get the Grizzlies, Kings and Timberwolves twice each.<br />
Turning our attention to the Western Conference, we see that<br />
the toughest trio of Eastern Conference opponents might be the<br />
Heat, the Celtics and the Knicks and both the Mavs and Lakers<br />
are dealt this hand. The Thunder get the Heat, Celtics and Magic,<br />
which is also no picnic.<br />
Western Conference teams with easy Eastern Conference opponents<br />
include the Rockets, who get the Wizards, Bobcats and<br />
Raptors and the Timberwolves, who get the Pacers, Pistons and<br />
Bobcats.<br />
Clearly, a thorough analysis of each team’s 2011-12 opponents<br />
will result in a knowledge of how many regular season wins a team<br />
might be expected to achieve this season. It is clear that the schedule<br />
makers – much more than in a normal regular season – have a strong<br />
influence on the difficulty of a team’s schedule. Get in front of the<br />
pack and ahead of the linesmakers by poring over the facing page<br />
to get a solid picture of what each team’s expectations might be this<br />
season. Then consider backing up your opinion with an investment.<br />
<strong>NBA</strong> teams are 0-21 ATS (-10.1 ppg) since 2005 during the regular season at home with less than two days rest when they are off<br />
a loss by more than ten points in which they shot less than 40% from the field and less than 60% from the free throw line, as long<br />
as they were not a double-digit dog in that loss.<br />
SDQL Text<br />
H and rest
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