Schedule Analysis
No teams play five games next week.
The San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Atlanta Hawks are the lowly teams with only two games.
Eleven teams play four games: The Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz, Toronto Raptors, Sacramento Kings, Orlando Magic, Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls.
Seven teams play only on the road this week: Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat, L.A. Clippers, Charlotte Bobcats, New Orleans Hornets, Orlando Magic, and Sacramento Kings.
Eight teams play all home games: San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Brooklyn Nets, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, and Atlanta Hawks.
The two games that the Spurs play this week are at home against the Wizards and Bobcats. Don’t let this fool you. It may look like easy matchups for the Spurs starters, but Popovich will have the rotation flowing during those games. Starting Tony Parker or Tim Duncan would be risky this week.
For the Hawks, a couple of players will be hard to sit. Al Horford has been working in the lumberyard lately, racking up 12.3 rebounds in his last six games played. The Hawks face the Raptors and Josh Smith is wide awake in games against Toronto. Last season, he averaged 19.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.8 steals, and 1.3 blocks shooting 54% from the field vs. the Raptors.
The Milwaukee Bucks have 4 games in 5 nights, two back-to-backs with the first game on the road.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have two games this week against the Grizzlies and the Cavaliers; Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook should still be starting in most line-ups.
The Boston Celtics start next week with two winnable games against the Kings and Magic, teams with weak defensive point guards.
Depth Chart Changes
Each week, we update our Depth Chart to reflect the latest fantasy news. The biggest change was Marreese Speights and Wayne Ellington being traded to Cleveland, where Speights immediately became the backup at PF and C. The Grizzlies gained salary relief, moved Tony Wroten into the rotation and will be leaning more heavily on Darrell Arthur, though Jon Leuer is the nominal backup center.
The latest injuries include Chris Paul and Luol Deng. The chart is never ‘perfect’ but it’s a quick look at the top ten players on all 30 teams, with links to their stats pages.