We truly believe here at FantasyLabs that we have the most unique tools and data available to DFS users. However, we also realize that those tools and data are only as awesome and helpful as our ability to effectively communicate how to use everything. As such, we will continually listen to feedback of what you need and try our best to teach our subscribers how to use all of the cool things we have to offer.

With this in mind, we’ve begun a “Trend of the Day” series. Every weekday we’ll walk our subscribers through an important trend for that day’s slate of games.

In today’s slate, we have three teams with particularly bad matchups in terms of a difference between their regular pace (possessions per game) and their opponent’s. The three teams tonight in question are the Lakers (-4.6 paceD), the Kings (-4.1), and Thunder (-4.0). Let’s start this Trend broadly and then focus down onto these specific teams.

Trend: Players in games with a -4.0 or worse paceD

Step 1: Trends > paceD > Set “-10 to -4″

Overall, the Plus/Minus is not terrible, which is a bit surprising. Let’s put in our regular filter to look at fantasy-relevant players and see if anything changes.

Step 2: Projections > Proj Minutes > Set “20 to 45″

And now the Plus/Minus is actually positive. Hmm. Let’s look at the specific teams and see how they fit into this.

Step 3: Team Filters > Team > Select “Los Angeles Lakers,” “Oklahoma City Thunder,” and “Sacramento Kings”

I’m not really sure why it’s positive so much here. The two potential reasons I can think of are 1) pace is a tad overrated in terms of hurting teams playing down in pace, or 2) elite players can rise above this issue. The Thunder and Kings are both positives in these situations and have All NBA guys in Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and DeMarcus Cousins.

Another potential theory is that these players are already priced accordingly. Or put another way — the Thunder and Kings are two the of the fastest-paced teams in the league; thus, almost every game is a pace-down game for them and, as a result, DraftKings and FanDuel compensate for this in their salaries. Perhaps the middle-of-the-road teams who don’t have pace priced in as much could see a bigger hit. However, for tonight, don’t necessarily be scared off your Thunder and Kings studs just because of the slower-paced game.