In the NBA, there's not much home-court advantage these days

Road trips in the NBA these days are somewhere between dreadful and boring. Favorite restaurants are off limits. Hanging out with friends or old teammates is difficult or impossible. Leaving the hotels for anything other than games and practices is pretty much a no-no, all in the interest of safety during the pandemic.

The plus side: There’s more winning than usual.

Home-court advantage this season in the NBA is basically nonexistent. Through Monday, home teams were winning 52% of the time — on pace to be the lowest such rate in NBA history.

The previous low was set last season, 55.1%. And the erosion of the home-court edge was becoming a thing even before teams went into the Walt Disney World bubble last summer; it wasn’t all because of the games that were played in Central Florida without fans. This will be the eighth consecutive season in which the home-court win rate is below 60%, so the phenomenon is not new.

It’s just never been this pronounced.

“There is no home court advantage in the NBA this season,” longtime NBA coach George Karl tweeted this past week. “The Away team may actually have the advantage on the road without opposing fans and energy.”

He’s not wrong.

There are some cities where it’s still very tough to win. Philadelphia was a league-best 29-2 in its building last season; the 76ers are a league-best 10-1 at home this season. Milwaukee was 28-3 at Fiserv Forum a year ago; the Bucks are 8-2 there this season.

Miami was 27-5 at home last season. So far this season, the Heat are 5-6, the most recent of those losses coming Monday when they wasted a 10-point lead in the final 2:47 of regulation and fell to Charlotte. Part of it is surely because the Heat have experienced significant roster depletion because of injuries and...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/In-the-NBA-there-s-not-much-home-court-advantage-15917298.php