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The second round of the NBA Playoffs have been a treat for all basketball fans, and they've been more dramatic than years past. Road teams have been taking over, but it just hasn't been in the second round, but in the entire playoffs in general this season. The things that road teams are doing haven't been seen since the 1980s, according to The Athletic's Mike Vurkunov.
“Playing at home just doesn’t mean what it used to. This spring, NBA teams are just 26-24 at home in the playoffs,” Vurkunov wrote. “That’s the lowest playoff winning percentage among home teams since 1981 (the 2020 playoffs were in the bubble).
“While home teams were a game under .500 in the 1981 NBA playoffs, it was a blip. The very next year, home teams won about 60 percent of their playoff games and kept climbing back up each year, right around historical precedent. In fact, home teams won at least 60 percent of their games in 56 of the first 78 postseasons.”
One of the most unique things is how Game 7s don't give an advantage to the home teams like they used to anymore.
“Getting to play the do-or-die game at home used to be a ballast for higher seeds,” Vurkunov wrote. “They won 79.1 percent of Game 7s over the league’s first 73 seasons. Home teams are just 5-10 in a Game 7 since 2021. When the Warriors won in Houston Sunday, it could hardly have been a surprise.”
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Is home-court advantage going extinct in the NBA?
Looking throughout the second round of the playoffs, it's hard not to notice that the road teams are dominating when they step into hostile territory. The Indiana Pacers lead their series 2-0 against the Cleveland Cavaliers after stealing both games on the road, and winning in dramatic fashion in Game 2, thanks to Tyrese Haliburton.
The New York Knicks will be heading back home with a 2-0 lead over the Boston Celtics after winning two games where they were down by 2o points at one time. The Denver Nuggets stole Game 1 on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder after a game-winning 3-pointer from Aaron Gordon.
After winning Game 7 against the Houston Rockets, two days later, they went into Minnesota and stole a game from the Timberwolves without having Stephen Curry for most of the game. The NBA is showing nowadays that no lead is safe, and that home-court advantage isn't the same as it used to be back in the day.
