There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home – By Jeff Freedman
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/17/08 — We’ve got very good news for four NBA teams trying to make it into the Conference Championships: The Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Hornets in the West and the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons in the East should start making hotel reservations now. (I know, Detroit has already clinched its spot). So far in the second round of this year’s NBA Playoffs the home team has won 20 of the first 21 games played, and by an average of nearly 14 points. So, if you believe the numbers, the score of tonight’s game should be: Home Team 102 and Visitors 88. There truly is, no place like home.
Is there any real reason for such a point disparity? Let’s take a closer look at several factors which may or may play a part. First, let’s examine the crowd. Sure each home team’s fans are loud and supportive. They can try and be distracting to a free throw shooter (although I’ve never heard of a player who blamed the crowd for a miss). Yet as far as I know, no fan has ever scored a point in a playoff game. No fan has stolen a pass, sunk a three-pointer or brought the house down with a slam dunk. For those out there who believe that there’s extra incentive to win when playing in front of the home crowd, may I remind you that THESE ARE PLAYOFF GAMES. There should be no extra incentive needed. These are all good teams who have followed Dorothy down the yellow brick road throughout the season to the promised land of Oz and are now trying to just get back home with the Championship Trophy. Still, it’s hard to ignore the facts that there is a “home team” advantage. We will assign this 5 points.
The officiating. We all know they are supposed to be unbiased, blind to where they are and who is playing. And who are we kidding. The players on the home team assume, and have probably been conditioned, to expect that borderline calls (or non-calls) will go their way when they are playing at home. Nonsense will say NBA officials. But even the Scarecrow knows better, and he doesn’t have a brain. We will assign this 3 points.
Familiarity with the playing surface. Forget that each basket is the same height and the court is the same for both teams. Players will tell you there are subtle differences that only they can detect in each arena. And, of course, the home team will know these better just by virtue of experience. It’s a well-oiled machine that knows these particular characteristics. Give the Tin Man a value of 4 points.
Lastly, we have the courage factor. Who is going to dare to make the great play? A home team player, of course. Pumped up by the crowd, looking for the headline in the next day’s paper, in front of family and friends, you can be sure a Home Teamer is going to be the one who dares to be great and fights his way through a forest of big men. It’s just a small thing, so we’ll give it 2 points.
Add them all up and there you have it, the 14 point differential. Does this explain who will ultimately win the NBA Championship. Prediction here is for the only team to have actually won a road game, the Detroit Pistons. They’ve another thing going for them as well. They are the only team left that is closest in geography to Kansas. And, as we all know: “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”
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