Where are all the road warriors in the NBA? The home teams are 20-1 in this second round of the playoffs. Thats amazing to say the least. We all know home court is important, but this important? This is weird. As a comparison, the home team records in the second round last year and the year before were 13-10 and 16-10 respectively. Those numbers are more along the lines of what you would expect. We know home teams will win more than they lose and we also expect home teams to do well in game 7's. But 20-1? Thats strange.
My theory is that this is just a symptom of this year's playoffs featuring a lot of newbies and young teams. The Hornets, Lakers and the Celtics are all new to this dance and so is Orlando, who don't really count anyways. Jazz and Cavs are semi-experienced, though still young and the only veteran teams are the Spurs and the Pistons. Pistons have won the only road game this entire round and the Spurs have not won a road game yet. But that is more because of the Hornets than the Spurs. The Hornets are just unstoppable at home and don't even show up on the road. A classic sign of an young inexperienced team. Even Chris Paul and David West look mediocre on the road and at home, they are so good we might as well give them the MVP award. This youth is the same reason that I don't like these teams in game 7s. But oddly enough, the 3 teams I find vulnerable are all at home if they ever get to game 7. San Antonio might win game 7 on Monday because of their experience or the Hornets might blow them out because they are at home. So something's gotta give.
Speaking of the Hornets, their games at home have been eye-opening in some sense. They seem to completely expose the Spurs and all their weaknesses. The Spurs have been accused of being old and un-athletic many times, but they have looked like it several times this series. It makes me wonder how far behind the Suns are. Aside from the fact that they don't have a coach and Steve Kerr is visiting Detroit to interview Terry Porter, the Suns have never really out-athleted the Spurs the last 4 years. Now the Hornets show us how they do it and you realize 3 things. The Suns don't have this kind of athleticism across the roster on both ends of the floor. Secondly, the Hornets are legit and the Suns can't beat them as constituted even if they ever beat the Spurs . Thirdly, the Hornets are going to be good for a looooong while. CP3 is the real deal and this team will be good as long as he is around. Plus they have more young, athletic and talented pieces to fit around him. The West is getting tougher by the minute folks.
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