NBA Roulette

charliej2356 · May 2, 2023 9:47AM

It used to be that the home team had a significant advantage in NBA play-off games -- nowadays, not so much. I call it "NBA Roulette" -- it's equally likely that the "black team" wins as the "red team" wins.

perkdog · May 2, 2023 10:22AM

Agreed

perkdog · May 2, 2023 10:23AM

Actually we can say the same thing about the NHL

charliej2356 · May 2, 2023 2:04PM

perkdog: Very interesting that it's that way in the NHL too (I don't follow hockey). When I played sports back in the day, home-team fans gave you "a high" that literally increased your energy/stamina -- quite an advantage.

thisistheshow · May 2, 2023 2:07PM

In my opinion, "home team advantage" is a thing, but that thing is fluid, situational, relative, etc.

erikthredd · May 2, 2023 2:22PM

So far in the NBA playoffs the home teams have gone a combined 29-18 overall. Having the homecourt advantage doesn't have the same value that it used to have.

The Heat,76ers,Lakers & Nuggets are the only teams that haven't lost a home game yet in these playoffs.

perkdog · May 2, 2023 2:55PM

@charliej2356 said:
perkdog: Very interesting that it's that way in the NHL too (I don't follow hockey). When I played sports back in the day, home-team fans gave you "a high" that literally increased your energy/stamina -- quite an advantage.

I don't typically follow NBA or NHL unless I have a vested interest with action ( Betting ).or C's and B's are in.

The Bruins cost me a LOT of money, not so much money lost but canceled out over a thousand in winnings if they had not lost a couple games that they were heavy favorites in in a couple of my parlays

SanctionII · May 2, 2023 3:01PM

It used to be that in March Madness the teams seeded 1-4 almost always advanced to the Sweet 16 and to the Final Four.

Not anymore as talent, for various reasons, is no longer stockpiled in a few top programs. Talent is spread out and there is great turnover from year to year.

NBA rosters are also seeing more evenly distributed talent. This leads to greater upsets in the NBA playoffs.

Interesting that seeds 1 and 4 in the east and seeds 2 and 3 in the west fell in round 1 of the current playoffs.

erikthredd · May 2, 2023 3:08PM

@SanctionII said:
It used to be that in March Madness the teams seeded 1-4 almost always advanced to the Sweet 16 and to the Final Four.

Not anymore as talent, for various reasons, is no longer stockpiled in a few top programs. Talent is spread out and there is great turnover from year to year.

NBA rosters are also seeing more evenly distributed talent. This leads to greater upsets in the NBA playoffs.

Interesting that seeds 1 and 4 in the east and seeds 2 and 3 in the west fell in round 1 of the current playoffs.

Not to mention that the international talent is at an all time high. The three MVP finalists: Giannis,Joker and the winner Embiid, all foreign born players.

erikthredd · May 2, 2023 3:12PM

Most teams these days would tell you that they'd rather have a fully healthy team come playoff time over having homecourt advantage. Its why so many teams go thru so much load management during the season.

thisistheshow · May 2, 2023 3:18PM

@erikthredd said:
Most teams these days would tell you that they'd rather have a fully healthy team come playoff time over having homecourt advantage. Its why so many teams go thru so much load management during the season.

...
I was just going to write up something about this. Yes, times have changed.

The regular season is not what it once was. Looking at how everything fleshed out at the end, based on standings/seedings, used to be a good litmus test for how things would go in the playoffs. Generally speaking, that is.

SanctionII · May 2, 2023 3:40PM

Golden State is a good example of the trend that the regular season is not viewed with the same importance as it used to.

This year GS had multiple players sit out multiple games for various reasons (injury, "load management", time off for personal matters, rest, etc., etc.), resulting in erratic play and inexplicable losses.

In late March and early April the players on the team had recovered, returned and began to ramp up for the playoff grind, winning 8 of the last ten games to obtain the #6 seed in the West (to avoid the play in games). After beating the Kings in Round 1 in 7 games GS now plays the Lakers in Round 2 with a healthy roster (and playoff focus).

erikthredd · May 2, 2023 4:01PM

@SanctionII said:
Golden State is a good example of the trend that the regular season is not viewed with the same importance as it used to.

This year GS had multiple players sit out multiple games for various reasons (injury, "load management", time off for personal matters, rest, etc., etc.), resulting in erratic play and inexplicable losses.

In late March and early April the players on the team had recovered, returned and began to ramp up for the playoff grind, winning 8 of the last ten games to obtain the #6 seed in the West (to avoid the play in games). After beating the Kings in Round 1 in 7 games GS now plays the Lakers in Round 2 with a healthy roster (and playoff focus).

The Celtics too did everything possible to make sure that come playoff time they would have as much health as possible. Sat Al Horford on every 2nd game of a B2B. Sat Rob Williams everytime there was even a hint of something wrong due to his injury history,the same with Malcolm Brogdon.
They came into the playoffs pretty much at full strength but it hasn't really paid off for them having lost 3 of their first 7 games.

erikthredd · May 2, 2023 4:04PM

The Celtics did everything possible to make sure that they had as close to full health come playoff time as possible. Sat Al Horford on every 2nd night of B2B's. Sat Rob Williams everytime there was even a hint of some discomfort due to his injury history,the same with Malcolm Brogdon. All that and it really hasn't paid off for them with losing 3 of their first 7 playoff games.

NBA Roulette

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