How important is home court advantage for the Jazz?

[carrottop12]

It seems like any time you hear the Jazz being mentioned by the national media the main thing they talk about is being one of the worst road team in the the Western Conference. But what they always seem to ignore is most of those losses are against teams like Indiana, Minnesota, New York, the Clippers, the Bobcats and the Hawks.

They never seem to mention the Jazz are the only team to beat Orlando, New Orleans, Boston, Houston, Philly, Golden State, Detroit, and Phoenix all on the road this year.

The Jazz have already locked up the 4/5 spot in the West and most likely will be playing either Phoenix or Houston in the first round.

So, in all honesty how important to do you feel home court advantage is for the Jazz.

No matter what we will play at least 3 games at home, I don't see the Jazz losing any of those games, and I have a hard time believing this team can't win at least 1 game on the road.

So how important is it?

[idajazz]

If we had home court for the whole shebang it would be nice.

I think home court is a tad over rated. How many times have you seen a hard fought series go 7 with all home wins?
One team usually steals a game and takes that advantage to the bank.
I kinda like being the underdog and going into the other teams house and taking a game and the momentum for the series.

[erudite23]

One thing I DON'T like about home court is the pressure it puts on you to start out strong. You have to come out and play your best right from the start of the series. In fact, I think if we had home court LAST year, we may not have won it, seeing as we came in to the playoffs in a slump, and weren't that sharp in the first two games. Houston easily could have taken one of the two, and finished us off in 6.

Still, I think home court would be nice, and I would love to have it, but this team has proven that it is more than capable of not just beating a good team at their house, but beating them DOWN. We smacked GS, Boston, Orlando, and New Orleans around in their buildings. I'm confident we can make it happen without it in the playoffs, but it would be a very nice luxury to have it.

[carrottop12]

Thats a great post erudite. And I agree about the HCA being a disadvantage for young teams. The Jazz with their experience I think would take advantage of home court, but like you said knowing that if you win either of the first two games when playing on the road is a huge advantage because then you go back home to start the HCA with basically a one game lead, even if the series is tied.

I think it would be a luxury for the Jazz, but by no means a necessity.

[hoops4life]

Not as important in the first round as the latter rounds.

[sendai91]

Not to oversimplify it at all, but the Jazz were 7-1 at home in the playoffs and 2-7 on the road last year, with an improbable win @ Houston in game 7. HCA is essential as I see it. I don't think that we would have won either game 1 or 2 of the Golden State series if either of those games had been in Oakland.

I think that there was some stat that said that the Jazz had never won a game 7 in a playoff series on the road (if I remember correctly) before last year. By 100x, I'd rather have any game 7 in the ESA than elsewhere. We have either the first or second best home crowd in the league, probably good for a 6 or 7 pt differential every playoff game.

[hoops4life]

I think that every team in the league would love to have and would prefer to have home court advantage throughout the playoffs.

[DelaneyRudd]

It's important but it isn't like the Jazz haven't shown the ability to win big road games. They just blow a crap load of easy road games.

[HammerDunk]

After games like last night, boston, phx, I know that Jazz can and will get it done on the road against teams in the playoffs. I'm not concerned.

[The Sheik]

You based it off of round 1 so I went with none at all. I like the Jazz chance without HCA against PHX or Houston. Plus I think it makes the team work harder because they have experience starting in Houston last year and it will help them realize how important it is to win early. Knowing this team the may come out lax with HCA knowing we have game 7 at home, we are the team that wants to prove everyone wrong, they say we cant win on the road lets prove them wrong.

[bleu]

I don't think it's really that big. We have shown to auctually be better than most against GOOD teams on the road (note the GOOD part). I'm dead serious when I say that I think that Deron will be sporting a new ring come this off-season.

[Pai Gow]

I sorta like the fact of us starting off a series on the road. I think we could EASILY steal Game 1 or 2 from a team and just shatter their hopes when they have to come back to SLC.

[bleu]

I sorta like the fact of us starting off a series on the road. I think we could EASILY steal Game 1 or 2 from a team and just shatter their hopes when they have to come back to SLC.

Same here. Of course we shouldn't tank or anything to get in that position, but I'm really confidant either way. If we don't have homecourt than as you said I think that we still have a great shot at it if we come out strong, and if we DO have homecourt than we can go ahead and smash 'em in the first two and hope to win one of the two in their place and come back to SLC and finish them off.

[CAE15]

It really all depends on who our opponent is. the Rockets? im not to worried if we dont get HC. The Suns? Prefer to have it. Spurs/Lakers? Would certainly make me feel better having HC.

[BiggMann]

Man you guys are suffering from short term memory loss. Do any of you remember the month of December? granted we were a different team then, but still it has to be brought up.. Utah laid an egg in December, and had we played .500 on the road we'd have the #1 seed LOCKED down. HC is essential to our success, sure we can beat good teams on the road from time to time.. .but if you think we can go through each playoff series not having HCA and expect a successful run you've seriously lost your marbles. Utah is a young team that feeds off their fans, they are far more productive in SLC than on the road.

...I think we are playing fantastic basketball right now, especially after crushing SA and NO, but to think that HCA isn't going to effect us that much is obsurd!! We need HCA, if you think differently maybe you should turn on those Minnesota games again real quick

[Duiz]

I think to answer the question of how... is pretty important. But it isn't the pivotal factor for a championship. We know if they execute, but most importantly play defense, and they can win on the road. Unlike Golden State, and Denver or Phoenix.

If we can play defense, we can win on the road.

[Ern III]

Home court is a distant secondary consideration.

The biggest determinant by far is which of the Rockets, Spurs, Suns or Lakers we will face in the first round. Without HCA, it best be the Rockets. Then we can knock off the Hornets and, with some gained momentum and confidence, go all the way to the championship series.

At the end of such an enigmatic yet basically successful regular season campaign, I think it's reasonable to think that there's no in-between for the Jazz in the post-season; we're either first-round fodder or finalists.

[FJS]

if you ask me I rather to have it than not to have it