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With long home stand Warriors should jump all over opportunity
By David Zizmor January 22, 2011 |
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OAKLAND--Basketball is a sport where home court advantage is probably more important than the rest you just don't see home field quite as important like baseball or football a little more so in hockey but basketball is always the toughest. Visiting teams in basketball have rough road records and are routinely significantly worse than home records and the Warriors are no exception to that rule they're certainly not a team of road Warriors so to speak. The Warriors have struggled on the road and have only won six times out of 18 on the road so far this year and conversely they're playing well at home and they could wind up at .500 they're 19-23 right now. What is it exactly about basketball games that make home games so much easier for the home team? Basketball has the fans right on the court, right next to the players there are little nuances in terms of how the court plays, how the winds are whether there soft or hard, whether the backboard is giving or unforgiving, there's all these little nuances can really affect how the ball flies in terms of the air flow in the arena that affects the flight of the ball. There's nuances that are picked up by the home team that are just tougher to adjust for the visitors and then you have the fans, the fans are right on top of the court you have a good home crowd that makes it much more difficult. That energy is something the home team can really feed off of. The Warriors fans are among the best in the NBA as bad as the Warriors have been for the last 20 some odd years. Their certainly the most knowledgeable and they're so enthusiastic that their energy even for a mediocre team can be a difference maker on a nightly basis. The Warriors when their at Oracle Arena they play significantly better and you know this season has been a perfect example for this home and road dichotomy, the Warriors really struggled on the road and they had a very unbalanced schedule early and they're playing 65% on the road to start the season. At the end of December they started a stretch where they had 18 of 22 games at home. The schedule flipped where they had way too many games on the road to a lot at home. That will ultimately balance out to a 50-50 but when you had a stretch that started out like the Warriors had to start the season on the road it really makes it really tough to jell on the floor or off the court. It makes it just that more difficult because it's not as comfortable because your on the road in hotels, you don't have a steady practice facility and you just probably can't get into a rhythm and when your on the road a lot as the Warriors were and you have to travel especially as much as the team does like the Warriors from the west coast it makes it even worse. So now that the Warriors are home were seeing them get healthy, were seeing them playing with more enthusiasm, were seeing them get themselves more together and they're getting themselves all on the same page and that's been reflective in the recent streak of wins that they've had. It helps that their playing lousy teams like New Jersey, Indiana, and an earlier Clippers team who struggled but the bottom line is the Warriors are looking good on the floor. Their not getting blown out, they're competitive night in and night out. This is something you get from home cooking its something you get from having your teammates healthy which is something the Warriors couldn't say for most of the first two months of the season. David Zizmor covers Warriors basketball each week for Sportstalk radio |
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