Rest advantage

The gap in days off between two teams before a game. A side coming off more rest — while the opponent plays a second night in a row — is generally fresher, an edge that shows up most in the NBA and NHL. We compute it from each team’s most recent prior game.

• Back-to-back (B2B) — Playing two days in a row (≤1 day rest) — correlated with fatigue and worse performance.