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Yes, there's still a series left, but if the Lakers Make the Finals and potentially face an Orlando team, that game thrown away against the Blazers is gonna stand out really well without the Home Court.

More specifically, Fisher fouling some rookie attempting a wild running jumper at the last couple of good seconds

Homecourt in the NBA Finals is overrated. It's only effective if the home court team sweeps the first two games 2-0, and puts pressure on the other finals team, like the Boston Celtics did to us in 2008.

But if we can steal split out of the first two games in Orlando, then home court becomes completely in Lakers' favor with 3 straight home games. Remember Detroit Pistons in 2004? They stole one on our home court, and we never made it back to LA.

It's been difficult for Orlando to win at Staples Center. If you count Orlando's last 10 road games against the Lakers in Staples Center, dating back to the 2002-2003 season. Orlando is 2-8 in LA. If we steal one against Orlando, they will not be able to take a game in LA.

Home court is big in the FInals... its huge!!!

3 Road teams have won the Finals over the last 20 years.

Lakers threw away a lot of games throughout the season, losing HCA cant be attributed to one or two games. Anyway, you have to be happy that the Lakers are currently playing their best basketball. And the playoffs have hidden one of the Lakers two main weaknesses: lack of a bench. Shortened rotations and having at least one day off between each game has nearly covered up the fact that our bench sucks. PG is our only other legitimate weakness, but that's not being fixed between now and June so gotta be happy with what we got.

Luffy wrote:Homecourt in the NBA Finals is overrated. It's only effective if the home court team sweeps the first two games 2-0, and puts pressure on the other finals team, like the Boston Celtics did to us in 2008.

But if we can steal split out of the first two games in Orlando, then home court becomes completely in Lakers' favor with 3 straight home games. Remember Detroit Pistons in 2004? They stole one on our home court, and we never made it back to LA.

It's been difficult for Orlando to win at Staples Center. If you count Orlando's last 10 road games against the Lakers in Staples Center, dating back to the 2002-2003 season. Orlando is 2-8 in LA. If we steal one against Orlando, they will not be able to take a game in LA.

I don't agree with this logic. You are basically saying if you outplay the opponent, you can cancel out the advantage of home court. But if the Lakers played THAT good WITH home court, the'd win the series in a shorter amount of games. The fact remains that the Lakers have to play that much better against the Magic than they would have to if they had home court advantage. It's much easier to win two home games than it is to steal one on the road.

Edrees wrote:

Luffy wrote:Homecourt in the NBA Finals is overrated. It's only effective if the home court team sweeps the first two games 2-0, and puts pressure on the other finals team, like the Boston Celtics did to us in 2008.

But if we can steal split out of the first two games in Orlando, then home court becomes completely in Lakers' favor with 3 straight home games. Remember Detroit Pistons in 2004? They stole one on our home court, and we never made it back to LA.

It's been difficult for Orlando to win at Staples Center. If you count Orlando's last 10 road games against the Lakers in Staples Center, dating back to the 2002-2003 season. Orlando is 2-8 in LA. If we steal one against Orlando, they will not be able to take a game in LA.

I don't agree with this logic. You are basically saying if you outplay the opponent, you can cancel out the advantage of home court. But if the Lakers played THAT good WITH home court, the'd win the series in a shorter amount of games. The fact remains that the Lakers have to play that much better against the Magic than they would have to if they had home court advantage. It's much easier to win two home games than it is to steal one on the road.

We won 2 on the road last season against the Magic. We use to play great against them. And they have HCA over us because they were better during the regular season. We didnt lose HCA that game against Portland. We were falling apart since the all-star break, problems and problems. If we win that game against Portland, maybe the Spurs made an upset and beat us like they did with the Mavericks. Because if Portland lost that Game, Spurs falls to 8th seed.

PD: I have more fear on Boston than Orlando, even with HCA.

Isn't there a thread on this somewhere?

with boston up 1-0, looks more and more like a reality!