OKC Thunder: Ranking difficulty of seeding schedules for all 22 teams

1st) Raptors – Cumulative opponent win total: 330

Seeding Game Record: 7-1, cemented the second seed, will play Brooklyn Nets in the first round. By virtue of winning the final game finish ahead of Lakers for 2nd best seed in NBA.

1. Raptors 107 – Lakers 92 (August 1)
2. Raptors 107 –  Heat 103 (August 3)
3. Raptors 109 – Magic 99 (August 5)
4. Celtics 122 – Raptors 100 (August 7)
5. Raptors 108 – Grizzlies 99 (August  9)
6. Raptors 114 – Bucks 106 (August 10)
7. Raptors 125 – 76ers 121 (August 12)
8. Raptors 117 – Nuggets 109 (August 14)

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• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

The Raptors closing schedule was tough but this revised ‘seeding’ schedule worked against them. Of the 18 games left on the original schedule, ten were against lottery teams or eighth seeds. Once those lottery teams were removed from the equation it just happened the tough games remaining were primarily against teams with home seeds.

As tough as that is, it could work to the Raptors benefit since they finally are healthy and need minutes for the core to get into a groove. To wit, of their 64 games played the Raptors core (top 7) were all healthy for 13 total games and six of those came in the first seven games!

The Raptors brutal schedule features the hardest second game of the back-to-back set of all teams and is the only team that’ll face one of the Bucks, Lakers, or Clippers on the second game. They do benefit from being the second game versus the 76ers and Magic although the Philly match is their third in four days.

The Blazers and Raptors are the only teams who don’t play a chase pack team.

For those who prefer to see the schedule on a day by day basis click this link for a tweet Brady Trantham sent out with the full day by day, team by team listing.