DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Does the NBA have a problem?

The home teams in this round are 20-1. I also heard on the radio that as of yesterday, home teams had made almost 5 more free throws per game than the visitors... There are a variety of possible reasons (cause and effect) for this, I just wonder if it's good for basketball.

One possible cause and effect is that refs consciously or subconsciously give the home team the benefit of the doubt.. if that's the case, that's a bad thing. The other possibility is that teams are just more aggressive with the ball on their own court and draw more fouls... if that's the case then visiting teams just need to suck it up.

I think homecourt advantage is a good thing, but 20-1? You would think that with the parity that should exist at this stage of the playoffs, that number wouldn't be quite as lopsided.

And a lot of these games have been blowouts, it's almost like visiting coaches get into the middle of the 3rd quarter down by 10 so they just fold the tent and wait to get back home...

I'm on the fence on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing or maybe this year is just weird... thoughts?

I always wonder about the rims at different courts. How hard would it be for maintenance to either tighten or loosen the springs in them depending on the other teams strengths. Playing with a rim that is rock solid, compared to one that has some give to it would definitely affect a teams shooting performance.

It would, but you would think that would even out at halftime... and you'd think some teams might raise a question if the maintenance crew came out at halftime to "readjust" both rims.

I'm just thinking in the line that from arena to arena the stiffness of the rim is altered to give the home team the advantage over the other team.

I would say it is an anomaly. However, the home team win percentage is probably somewhere between that number and 50%. I'm way too lazy and busy to go look it up. I would bet its between 60 and 80 percent though.

Home court in an NBA offers a competitive advantage moreso than any other sport (IMO). One might argue that hockey is close - but the scores are always so low it could go either way. In basketball, mistakes can be minimized because a basket is worth 2 points. In football, a mistake can be huge. Same as hockey and even baseball for that matter, because goals and runs are hard to come by in the playoffs. A mistake can really happen to either team at any time. Therefore, win percentages for home teams in those sports are closer to 50%. In hoops, the mistakes can be made up - especially for a home team.

I hope that makes sense.....I took a phone call in the middle of typing that.

A study was done on home field advantage and IIRC it didn't have as much to do with mistakes as some other factors, it did find that hockey and basketball were the 2 sports with the biggest home field advantage, followed by football and then baseball.

I believe the conclusion they came to had more to do with proximity to the field and crowd noise. i.e. basketball crowds are pretty loud much of the time but baseball fans only get loud in certain situations... plus basketball fans are right on top of the court but baseball fans are significantly farther from the field... it also said that because basketball and hockey are always inside but most football and baseball games are outside so crowd noise is dissipated....

No idea how accurate that is, but that's what they came up with. I do remember them using some teams with notoriously small crowds as examples of why this is true and I thought... now does the team suck because the crowd isn't there, or is the crowd not there because the team sucks? I'm more inclined to think the latter.

I really think its just an anomaly.

For me I think some of its in familiarity to the surroundings. Guys that play on their home court have seen the same backgrounds, signage, lighting, etc... for 40+ games all season long. I remember when I was younger how well I played basketball on my own hoop. It was regulation in height. Yet whenever I went and played on the playgrounds with the hoop on a pole and absolutely nothing behind it, I was tossing airballs all over the place; like my depth perception was all out of whack. The more I played at one particular place, the better I got, but move me to another basket, and nothing but air again. I know these guys are pros, but this may have a little to do with it.

edit: I want to add that the old place the Celtics used to play at had dead spots on the old floor. The Celtics knew where they were and could avoid them while the visiting teams would sometimes bounce the ball on a dead spot.

when i read the title i thought this was a thread on the NBA allowing the Sonics to move from Seattle to Oklahoma City. that's a bigger problem in my mind. as far as the home court advantage, i agree with the posters who say that it's likely an anomaly this year. as far as free throws go, in the cavs-celtics series i heard on the radio this morning that the home team has shot less free throws throughout the series. that kind of goes counterintuitive to the thought that you'd get a little home-cooking from the refs. i also heard that it's been the opposite in the lakers-jazz series, so who knows what it all means. i just hope the trend continues and the cavs can get to a game 7 on sunday, where anything's possible!

I haven't looked up the stats myself but the stat that was provided was free throws made, not free throws shot.. and that could go directly to the building familiarity which was just posed.. .It's like in Utah, that dude with the flag behind the basket looks like he could darn near block the shot waving that flag right up against the back of the backboard.

i dont think the NBA has a problem. Its just one of those things this year. If we look at the teams in the semi-finals. The Cavs are a WAY better team on the home than they are on the road. Just as the Utah Jazz (the best home record in the NBA) and we know the Laker's are going to protect the home court. The Spurs and the Hornets series is suprising because you would think the World Champs would be able to win a game on the road against an inexperienced team (and they still might).

You just have 8 teams that play better at home and the results speak for themselves. I dont even think many of the games have really been close losses, Which if they were you could point to a call here or there as the reason, but losing by double digits takes that angle away.

the conspiracy theorists can say that the nba is having the refs be generous to home teams, so that they can get the most out of a series..

a 4-game sweep doesn't do much, with a 7 game series, you get the 3 extra games, on top of the fact that the series gets more compelling as it gets closer to game 7...

i don't really buy into that... i don't believe games are fixed, but i do believe the refs can be more fair to road teams...

the officiating in game 5 the other night was bad... but it wasn't why we lost...

the biggest reason for home team dominance is the bench play... look at how bench guys play at home against how they play on the road...

our own boobie gibson, he's lights out at the q, but on the road, he's not quite the same... i think anderson varejao is another guy that plays a lot better at home...

bench guys don't get a ton of minutes, so they don't quite have the feel for the game, but having the home crowd can energize you...

i'll say it again, hockey is better and more fair when it comes to the playoffs... a game 7 on the road isn't quite the death sentence that it is in the nba...

i'm reading about the history of game 7 right now...

there have been 98 game 7's in nba history, but only 19 have been won by the road team, that's a little under 20%, which means 1 in 5 game 7's is won by the road team, and there aren't even 5 game 7's on average in an nba post-season...

so it's rare, but not ultra-rare

the last few game 7 road winners...

utah last year over the rockets

dallas over san antonio 2 years ago

detroit over miami 3 years ago, as well as indy over boston

lakers over the kings in '02

it's happened the past 3 years, 4 times... so that isn't a bad trend...

i honestly think if there are 3 game 7's this weekend, at least one of those road teams will pull it off... i still give the spurs the best chance...

I don't know the reason for a 20-1 home court advantage. If thats true they should just give the series to the team with the most home games. Why even bother playing the games? We should move on to real sports like Football and Baseball. I would trade Lebron right now for a good running back or a 40 homer guy.

I would only trade lebron for some browns superbowl rings....

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I don't know the reason for a 20-1 home court advantage. If thats true they should just give the series to the team with the most home games. Why even bother playing the games?

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You have to play the games, but if the trend continues then why play 7 of them? Wouldn't a 5 game series achieve the same result? They could all just get to the deciding game tied at 2 instead of tied at 3.... It would shorten the playoffs and make it more exciting.