Why is it so hard to win on the road!

[ChiTownPacerFan]

Looking at home vs. away records, it's insane how much of a difference it makes. My Pacers have an 82% winning percentage at home, and a 42% winning percentage on the road. The Nuggets win almost 90% of their home games and only 38% of their road games! It's like they have to play a different game away from the Pepsi Center. I know this is nothing new, but it's always seemed fishy to me.

So what's the explanation? Is it psychological? Is it a comfort level thing? Is it the effect of travel? Is it the power of the home fans? Is it the way refs are instructed to officiate games? Why is there this massive disparity?

[4milesperday]

Because the fans give you extra energy at home and you're used to the arena...you know your sweet spots.

[Hitman 3:16]

One bad call against the road team can lead to a change in the momentum in favor of the home team, which leads to a domino effect that doesn't play in a favor for the road team. Officials get highly influenced by rowdy fans.

[ChiTownPacerFan]

Because the fans give you extra energy at home and you're used to the arena...you know your sweet spots.

The extra energy I understand, but I don't buy the sweet spots thing. I play basketball. My sweet spots are the same no matter what gym I'm playing in.

[Lakers+Giants]

It's psychological. Players feel much more comfortable playing in front of their crowd and having the crowd cheer them on instead of booing them.

[Lakers+Giants]

It's psychological. Players feel much more comfortable playing in front of their crowd and having the crowd cheer them on instead of booing them.

[b@llhog24]

It affects role players more than anything. The best of the best aren't generally phased by crowds. In fact I remember Shuttlesworth saying that he lives to silence the opposing crowd, or something along those lines.

[Guppyfighter]

Home town calls, jet lag.

[lakerboy]

A sports data analyst for the Knicks told me that on average, the home team is +3 points in the NBA.

You can compute this using Microsoft Excel.

Analysts say they do not have any solid explanation for that +3, but most people believe that the referees give a slight advantage to the home team.

[ChiTownPacerFan]

A sports data analyst for the Knicks told me that on average, the home team is +3 points in the NBA.

You can compute this using Microsoft Excel.

Analysts say they do not have any solid explanation for that +3, but most people believe that the referees give a slight advantage to the home team.

Sounds about right. I guess the question is whether the referees are instructed to do so, or whether they are affected by the crowds. Regardless, the NBA needs to be instructing refs to be more objective regardless of whether a team is at home or away.

[TyrionLannister]

Time changes. East coast to west coast is a 3 hour difference, ****s with your sleeping habits.

[Becks2307]

Also you are leaving from a hotel you likely got to the day before. Not with your family, away crowd, biased refs, etc etc

all the little things add up.

[Slug3]

Also has anyone seen the visiting teams locker rooms? Some of these places are horrid and I'm sure it's to make the visiting team as un comfortable as possible.

[JasonJohnHorn]

There is a psychological effect for sure. There are documented cases where people perform better when in front of a crowd. Some runners, when they practice and are running alone, cannot replicate their best times. They need somebody else to run against. And get a crowd that is cheering for you? It is 95% psychological. And this is not applied to sport, but almost all areas of performance, most notably music.

The other areas of impact are the officials (who will make calls in favour of the home team), and perhaps familiarity, though the courts are pretty standard, so I'm not sure what difference there could be in this respect.

There is no denying the fact that teams play at different levels depending on where they play and who is in the crowd.

[mrker]

Its just part of the natural progress championship teams go thru,

The short version is this,,,, collect core players, learn to win 41 or more, then learn to dominate @ home and that gets you to 50 wins, then championship teams learn to win on the road, good teams dominate @home, championship teams win on the road