Much is often made of strength of schedule — if a team faces a lot of tough opponents, or plays a lot of road games or back-to-backs, then their performance is viewed with a kinder gaze. Wins in those scenarios are harder to come by, and losses on long home stands against inferior competition are seen as missed opportunities.
That context can make judging a team’s performance difficult to do, both over larger samples and over short stretches. We’ll try to correct that difficulty in this piece (and the subsequent pieces to follow), by examining each game performance while taking into account how good the opponent is, where the team is playing, and schedule impacts.