NBA

Daily Fantasy NBA Adjusted Matchups and Pace for Friday 4/30/31

Matchups matter in daily fantasy NBA, and it can be hard to keep everything -- pace, defensive rating, individual matchups -- tidy, so I wanted to fix that by dumping all the data into one place for ease of use.

So every day, I'll be posting some information on each game for the NBA main slate.

That'll include things like opponent-adjusted offensive and defensive ratings for each team. I'll also look at opponent-adjusted paces based on the team-level as well.

And to go a step further, I'll provide defense-versus-position (DvP) values based on FanDuel points per minute allowed to each position. The way that'll work is to adjust on the individual level. This means looking at each player's total fantasy points per minute mark to figure out an expected output in a game and comparing it to what actually happened. Holding a superstar and a role player to the same FanDuel-point-per-minute mark isn't quite the same. These values will adjust for expectation.

These values initially included last season's data but now show only stats from the 2020-21 season.

Adjusted Offensive Rating and Opponent Defensive Rating

This table shows each team's spread and implied total (plus the over/under for their game). It also includes opponent-adjusted offensive rating and the adjusted defensive rating for each team's opponent, including league-wide ranks for each.

Teams are sorted by implied team total.

Team Opp Over/
Under
Spread Implied
Total
Adj.
Offensive
Rating
Rank Opp Adj.
Defensive
Rating
Rank
BKN POR 240.5 -1.0 120.75 121.0 4 120.3 29
POR BKN 240.5 1.0 119.75 119.8 6 114.9 24
MEM ORL 224.0 -11.5 117.75 111.2 14 115.9 26
WSH CLE 227.0 -7.0 117.0 106.6 23 114.2 23
PHI ATL 222.0 -9.5 115.75 110.8 15 113.8 20
LAL SAC 224.0 -7.5 115.75 107.2 21 125.4 30
BOS SA 222.5 -4.0 113.25 113.7 12 111.0 11
PHX UTAH 218.5 -4.5 111.50 118.8 7 103.7 3
MIL CHI 221.0 -1.0 111.0 120.7 5 113.8 21
CHI MIL 221.0 1.0 110.0 109.4 17 109.6 8
CLE WSH 227.0 7.0 110.0 99.0 28 113.4 19
SA BOS 222.5 4.0 109.25 108.5 19 111.5 12
SAC LAL 224.0 7.5 108.25 114.0 11 101.8 1
UTAH PHX 218.5 4.5 107.0 121.8 2 108.0 5
ATL PHI 222.0 9.5 106.25 115.2 10 102.4 2
ORL MEM 224.0 11.5 106.25 98.4 29 109.8 9

Adjusted Pace and Expected Pace, Offensive Rating, and Points

This table shows each team's adjusted pace and adjusted opponent pace to find expected pace. Expected offensive rating combines each team's adjusted offensive rating and the opponent's adjusted defensive rating. Combining expected pace and expected offensive rating gives us expected points.

This table is sorted by matchup in terms of fastest average pace.

Team Opp Adj.
Pace
Rank Opp
Adj.
Pace
Rank Expected
Pace
Expected
Offensive
Rating
Expected
Points
WSH CLE 104.2 1 97.7 24 100.9 110.4 111.4
CLE WSH 97.7 24 104.2 1 100.9 106.2 107.2
MIL CHI 102.1 6 99.4 14 100.7 117.2 118.1
CHI MIL 99.4 14 102.1 6 100.7 109.5 110.3
BKN POR 102.2 5 97.9 22 100.1 120.6 120.7
POR BKN 97.9 22 102.2 5 100.1 117.3 117.4
MEM ORL 100.5 11 98.7 18 99.6 113.6 113.1
ORL MEM 98.7 18 100.5 11 99.6 104.1 103.7
PHI ATL 100.8 10 98.0 20 99.4 112.3 111.6
ATL PHI 98.0 20 100.8 10 99.4 108.8 108.2
LAL SAC 97.7 25 101.1 8 99.4 116.3 115.5
SAC LAL 101.1 8 97.7 25 99.4 107.9 107.2
BOS SA 98.1 19 99.1 16 98.6 112.4 110.8
SA BOS 99.1 16 98.1 19 98.6 110.0 108.4
PHX UTAH 97.0 27 99.1 15 98.0 111.2 109.0
UTAH PHX 99.1 15 97.0 27 98.0 114.9 112.6

Player-Level Adjusted FanDuel Points per Minute by Position

This table is presented to be viewed from an offensive perspective (i.e. the defensive marks reflect the offense's opponent).

The matchups shown are their opponent's defensive FanDuel-point-per-minute mark adjusted for individual opponents faced. League-wide ranks are in parenthesis. Because outliers are the primary matchups worth targeting and avoiding, green cells indicate top-five easiest matchups for the offense, and red indicate bottom-five.

Teams are sorted alphabetically for ease of use.

Offense Defense PG SG SF PF C
ATL PHI 0.95 (10) 0.87 (16) 0.81 (4) 0.92 (9) 0.94 (2)
BKN POR 1.01 (25) 0.93 (27) 0.83 (7) 0.96 (19) 1.06 (7)
BOS SA 0.99 (22) 0.86 (10) 0.86 (13) 0.91 (8) 1.13 (19)
CHI MIL 0.96 (13) 0.87 (18) 0.90 (25) 0.94 (14) 1.09 (12)
CLE WSH 1.04 (29) 0.89 (24) 0.89 (23) 0.95 (16) 1.20 (26)
LAL SAC 1.01 (24) 0.93 (28) 0.89 (22) 0.97 (21) 1.17 (22)
MEM ORL 1.02 (26) 0.95 (30) 0.89 (24) 0.98 (23) 1.05 (6)
MIL CHI 0.95 (12) 0.86 (11) 0.84 (11) 0.94 (13) 1.21 (27)
ORL MEM 0.94 (8) 0.89 (23) 0.88 (21) 0.91 (7) 1.23 (29)
PHI ATL 0.98 (18) 0.85 (7) 0.88 (19) 0.96 (17) 1.07 (8)
PHX UTAH 0.94 (7) 0.79 (2) 0.85 (12) 0.88 (3) 1.08 (9)
POR BKN 0.93 (4) 0.86 (13) 0.84 (10) 0.98 (22) 1.19 (24)
SA BOS 0.94 (9) 0.85 (8) 0.86 (14) 0.88 (4) 1.12 (18)
SAC LAL 0.98 (19) 0.83 (4) 0.81 (5) 0.89 (6) 1.03 (4)
UTAH PHX 0.90 (1) 0.77 (1) 0.80 (3) 0.89 (5) 1.08 (10)
WSH CLE 0.97 (17) 0.87 (19) 0.87 (17) 0.97 (20) 1.12 (17)