Residence-court benefit? It doesn’t exist to this point within the NBA convention semifinals — the place visiting teams mixed to go 4-0 in Recreation 1s, the primary time that has occurred throughout this spherical within the league’s playoff history.
Indiana beat top-seeded Cleveland on Sunday within the opener of that East collection, New York beat defending champion Boston and Denver beat West top-seeded Oklahoma Metropolis of their respective openers Monday, and Golden State topped Minnesota in Recreation 1 of their matchup Tuesday.
“It is a tremendous group of men,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr mentioned after Golden State’s win, one which got here with Stephen Curry out for a lot of the sport with a strained hamstring.
Up to now in these playoffs, highway teams have gone 23-25. That is on tempo to be the third-best general highway playoff file in NBA post-season history, not counting the bubble season of 2020 when no one technically was at house.
Road teams had gone 3-1 within the Round 2 openers of the NBA playoffs on three different events — 2023, 2015 and 2011 — within the present playoff format, which dates to 1984. (It additionally occurred contained in the bubble through the 2020 playoffs, when teams had house and highway designations, however video games have been on impartial flooring inside Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.)
However 4-0 has by no means occurred, till now.
“I all the time say a playoff collection doesn’t start till somebody wins a highway sport,” Indiana guard Tyrese Haliburton mentioned. “Properly, we’ve received two.”
That’s true: Indiana doubled down on its highway success by additionally taking Recreation 2 at Cleveland on Tuesday night time, simply earlier than Golden State misplaced Curry early however received Recreation 1 at Minnesota.
And all that led to much more highway history: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday grew to become the primary three-day stretch in NBA playoff history the place visiting teams mixed to go at the very least 6-0. That run began Sunday with Indiana’s Recreation 1 win at Cleveland, then Golden State’s Recreation 7 highway win at Houston within the conclusion of the primary spherical of the playoffs.
The wins by New York and Denver have been Monday, then Indiana and Golden State received once more on Tuesday.
“This group has fought all yr,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau mentioned. “It’s been a reasonably good highway group.”
They’re not alone. Not this yr, anyway, and this pattern did not start in these playoffs. Residence teams received 54% of video games within the common season, the fourth time the leaguewide house successful proportion has dipped that low within the final 5 years.
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