Homecourt advantage

Two readers sent in letters asking why the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons gained the homecourt advantage in the National Basketball Association (NBA) second round playoffs despite lower seedings at the end of the regular season.

Juan Ramon (Monju) Guanzon, charter director and commissioner of the Negros Basketball Association, wrote:

"Higher seeds in the NBA playoffs usually get homecourt advantage. Could you please explain or inquire for NBA fans why both the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons had homecourt advantage despite having a lower seed (No. 3) against the Los Angeles Lakers and the New Jersey Nets (No. 2)?" Dionito Samar, Jr. of [email protected] <file:///mailto:[email protected]> asked the same question: "I would like to ask why is it that the San Antonio Spurs and the Detroit Pistons have the homecourt advantage in the second round NBA playoffs?"

Monju and Dionito weren’t the first NBA fans to ask about the quirk in the matchups. Here’s the score, guys.

Under NBA rules, eight teams from each conference (Eastern and Western) advance from the regular season to the playoffs. The division winner with the best record in each conference is ranked No. 1 and the other division winner–regardless of its record–is ranked No. 2. The remaining six teams are ranked from No. 3 to No. 8 according to their win-loss records. The team with the higher win-loss record in the regular season is awarded the homecourt advantage in each round of the playoffs.

Let’s fill in the blanks to illustrate how the rules were applied.

In the Eastern Conference, New Jersey topped the Atlantic Division with a 47-35 record and Indiana, the Central Division with a 61-21 record. So the Pacers took the No. 1 slot and the Nets, No. 2. Because Indiana posted the best regular season record in the league, the Pacers earned the homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs–for as long as they stay in contention.

Curiously, Detroit registered a higher win-loss record, 54-28, than New Jersey, but had to settle for the No. 3 seed in the first round because of the quirk in the rules. The Pistons finished No. 2 in the Central.

After New Jersey blanked New York and Detroit booted out Milwaukee, they came face to face in the second round. This time, the win-loss records in the regular season were the basis for awarding the homecourt advantage–not the original first round seedings. That’s why the Pistons had the homecourt advantage over the Nets.

It was the same situation in the Spurs-Lakers encounter.

In the Western Conference, the Lakers topped the Pacific Division with a 56-26 regular season record while Minnesota, the Midwest Division with a 58-24 mark. So the Timberwolves took the No. 1 seed in the West and the Lakers, No. 2. San Antonio settled for the No. 3 slot as runner-up in the Midwest even if the Spurs’ 57-25 record was higher than the Lakers’.

As it turned out, the Lakers ousted Houston and the Spurs eliminated Memphis to arrange their own duel. Again, the seedings were thrown out the window and the regular season records were used to determine which team would be awarded the homecourt advantage. Because the Spurs chalked up one more win than the Lakers in the regular season, San Antonio took the homecourt edge.

The Lakers are the only team to win a playoff series so far this season without a homecourt advantage. They did it at San Antonio’s expense. Of the 10 playoff series settled, only one was won by a team that didn’t enjoy the homecourt advantage.

This morning (Manila time), Sacramento and Minnesota slug it out in Game 7 of their series to decide which team plays the Lakers in the Western Finals. Tomorrow, the Pistons and Nets play their own Game 7 to determine Indiana’s opponent in the Eastern Finals.

There have been 86 Game 7s in NBA playoff history and 71 were won by teams at home. That .826 winning clip is what worries the Kings and the Nets who must win on the road to survive. New Jersey beat the Pistons on the road in triple overtime to take Game 5–that took four hours and six minutes to finish–and must repeat at the Palace in Auburn Hills to advance to the next round. The probability of a third straight road win in the series (Detroit beat New Jersey on the Nets court in Game 6) is extremely low.

As for the Kings, they beat the Wolves on the road in Game 1 but Minnesota regained the homecourt advantage by winning at Sacramento in Game 3. In the regular season, the Wolves were 31-10 at home, a winning clip of .756–the same mark as the Pistons’.

I pick the Wolves and Pistons to advance. Before the playoffs began, I predcited those two teams to make it to the Finals. Sacramento has a history of choking–the Kings lost in Game 7s in the last two playoffs–while the Nets face the almost impossible task of winning two in a row on the road.

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