Home court advantage can be misleading
The Clippers would have been the favorite in last year’s series regardless of whether they had home court advantage or not. Once they had it, though, hardly any fans were picking the Jazz to come out on top. But in the end, we all saw how that one turned out.
For me, home court advantage can be a little misleading. Sure, if you just take care of business at home, you win the series. That’s the idea, right? Easy peasy.
But when you think about it, it also puts some extra pressure on the home team not to screw it up. Drop one of those first two games and all of a sudden it’s a long time before you’re back on your home court again and it’s the opposing team that now has earned home court advantage.
That’s exactly what Utah did last year by stealing Game 1 from the Clippers in one of the most memorable playoff games in Jazz history. Suddenly, the pressure was on LA to win on the road rather than on Utah to defend home court. Ironically enough, the Jazz would go on to only win one home game the entire series, while three of their victories came on the road. Home court advantage ultimately meant little to either team in that series.
Amazing year for the Jazz. The season was 100% a success independently of what happens in the playoffs. Organization, coaches, players, etc. should all be extremely proud of what they've accomplished.
— Mark (@MarkW_E01) April 12, 2018
Of course, I realize the Thunder and last year’s Clippers aren’t the same team and I’d probably do well to stop comparing them (there’s just so many parallels!). However, this same principle applies that rather than the pressure of defending home court being on the Jazz from the get-go – a Jazz team that features a starting backcourt that may be somewhat nervous and uptight since it has never played a single postseason game, no less – they’ll get two chances to pull themselves together and steal a game on the road.
And Utah has been surprisingly solid on the road since their turnaround. Prior to the season finale loss to Portland, the Jazz had won 15 of their last 16 contests away from home. If that trend continues, then maybe starting on the road won’t be a bad thing at all!
Don’t get me wrong, OKC is glad they have home court advantage and overcoming that fact is going to be tough for the Jazz. Chesapeake Energy Arena is a much tougher place to play than the Staples Center was last year. In fact, it’s one of the toughest away arenas in the league.
However, what I hope you’ll take from this is that giving up home court advantage isn’t the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn’t last year and it won’t be this year.