Why not having home court advantage might be good for Raps

peteyjones13 · Post #1 » by **peteyjones13** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 11:35 am

Personally, I would rather have games 3 and 4 of a playoff series at home for the Raps than games 1 or 2. I feel that by games 3 and 4, the Raps will have settled into playoff basketball, and should be able to win 2 games at home against Washington or Orlando.(who we might end up facing)

Having games 1 and 2 at home, I feel like game 1, the Raps can be a little bit nervous and shaky, combine that with the fact that there's a good chance the last few games of the season have been meaningless, and therefore the Raps a bit rusty, and I don't feel like there's as good a chance of the Raps winning game 1 at home as there normally would be for the Raps playing at home.

I also think that there's a better chance of stealing game 1 on the road than stealing games 3 or 4. There's a lot of pressure on the home team to win game 1.

For the above reasons, I'm not sure if I want the Raps to get home court advantage for the playoffs because I'd much rather games 3 and 4 at home. I can envision the Raps splitting the first 2 on the road, then winning games 3 and 4 to take a 3-1 series road.

The only obvious downside to this is the fact that in games 5, 6, and 7,
2 of the 3 would be on the road. And you of course want 2 of the last 3 to be at home.

What do you guys think?

BigBob13 · Post #2 » by **BigBob13** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 12:20 pm

Interesting thought about homecourt advantage. Considering last year's performance that probably would have been better for us to start out on the road and to get our feet wet right away. Maybe come out and steal a game on the road and take that momentum into our own building.
I think this year is going to be different. We're not catching anyone by surprise anymore so a battle for homecourt could take us all the way into April, all engines firing. I think it will be close between us and Cleveland with both Orlando and Washington falling to the 5/6 seeds (dont know the order though). Another year of experience as a team and last years playoff series as well under our belt. I think having homecourt is still the best thing for this team and I think that they will realize how important homecourt is and that you can't let a team take one in your own building considering last year's outcome. The more advantage we have the better it is for our confidence. Still would have been sweet to have game 7 in our building, damn Calderon pass...1/2 foot higher!!

mintsa · Post #3 » by **mintsa** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 1:34 pm

I would always prefer having game 5 and 7 at home. I see what your saying in having game 3 & 4 at home. But that means you MUST steal one of the first 2 games on the road and I dont think the raps have enough playoff expereince yet to do that.

G-UNIT · Post #4 » by **G-UNIT** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 1:36 pm

Raps must have home court period...theyre a soft team, soft teams dont win in the playoffs period. If anybody thinks they can win a 'ship with this team, theyre fooling themselves and need to wake up and smell the coffee....they need to get the home calls from the refs!

tnugget · Post #5 » by **tnugget** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 1:41 pm

ya it might take off some pressure, the pressure to win the first game of the series. But remember it's the playoffs. There are no easy breaks. Every minute you're on the floor is a pressure situation. You just have to play though it, and use every advantage possible IMO.

The first game is going to be a dogfight whether you're on the road or whether you're at home. The reason it seems there is so much pressure on the home team to win the first game at home is not because of the home crowd, it's because the game is actually hard to win, the other team brings their A game and both teams are jocking for position.

I'd rather had homecourt anyways, because every game counts in the playoffs. Although all the games are equally as important. It seems to me that conceding home court, or hoping that the raps finish 5th, 6th, 7 or 8th is giving up an obvious major advantage, and hence a chance to win one of the most important games in the series.

KRANG · Post #6 » by **KRANG** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 2:37 pm

I agree 100 %. The Raps have been soft all year at home, but we've been bringing it on the road. I would love to see us start a playoff series on the road.

Post #7 » by **Shaazzam** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 2:49 pm

No offence, but I think this is absurd. I understand what you are saying, but if your team can't grasp the concept of taking care of business at home, they aren't going anywhere. Settling into playoff basketball was what last season was for. And it can't even be used for reference because they were playing in NJ, which is one of the most pathetic home crowds in the history of sports.

And really, how can you project a playoff series when you have no idea who the opponent is going to be? I could easily have a team like Atlanta in mind and figure we would take them in 5, if not four, no matter where we play.

gcsw · Post #8 » by **gcsw** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 3:08 pm

If we are playing Cavs which is the team we would most likely face come playoff time, it won't matter if we get homecourt or not. Raps will lose no matter what. LeBron will make sure that will happen while our franchise player will get choked by Varajeo.

El Presidente · Post #9 » by **El Presidente** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 8:52 pm

This is ******* crazy. There's a reason you play 82 games to determine who gets home-court advantage and it's because having home-court IS A GOOD THING.

Now even if you think that they might be nervous at home, that doesn't even come close to making up for not having the deciding game of a series in your building. I think the NBA finals system is a bit skewed and although it still favors the team with home-court advantage, having the middle three games in the other arena makes things pretty difficult because if you lose one of the first two games, there's a chance you'll never play another home game. And even then I think only one team has ever swept the middle three games.

LLJ · Post #10 » by **LLJ** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 8:58 pm

All I know is that beating the Knicks in game 5 in 2001 was that much sweeter.

The_Hater · Post #11 » by **The_Hater** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 8:59 pm

Home court advantage is extremely important in the playoffs. Both starting on the road and playing an extra game on the road will clearly be a disadvantage for us.

The main reason we lost last season was that we were a team with very little NBA postseason experience playing a team with tons of postseason experience. And it clearly showed. And while many Raptor fans tried to downplay the significance of that, they were wrong. The same thing happened in 2001 when the veteran Knicks stomped on a superior Raptor squad. One year later, we got them back. Of course it helped having home court advantage the 2nd time around too.

peteyjones13 · Post #12 » by **peteyjones13** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 9:05 pm

The_Hater wrote:Home court advantage is extremely important in the playoffs. Both starting on the road and playing an extra game on the road will clearly be a disadvantage for us.

The main reason we lost last season was that we were a team with very little NBA postseason experience playing a team with tons of postseason experience. And it clearly showed. And while many Raptor fans tried to downplay the significance of that, they were wrong. The same thing happened in 2001 when the veteran Knicks stomped on a superior Raptor squad. One year later, we got them back. Of course it helped having home court advantage the 2nd time around too.

uve got your years wrong my friend. 2000 we were swept by the knicks. 2001 we beat them in 5 featured by a 4th quarter Alvin and Chris Childs game 4, and a solid Vince in game 5 at the garden.

Kabookalu · Post #13 » by **Kabookalu** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 10:33 pm

It definitely applied last year but I'm not sure if that's something we'll need to worry about this year. This group has some experience together playing in the playoffs, and two of our newly acquired swingmen came from championship teams-Delfino and Kapono. I also attribute the losses of game 3 and 4 to Bargnani not starting. Bargnani seemed to have handled the pressure of the playoffs despite being a rookie and responded well.

peteyjones13 · Post #14 » by **peteyjones13** » Mon Feb 4, 2008 11:45 pm

Choker wrote:It definitely applied last year but I'm not sure if that's something we'll need to worry about this year. This group has some experience together playing in the playoffs, and two of our newly acquired swingmen came from championship teams-Delfino and Kapono. I also attribute the losses of game 3 and 4 to Bargnani not starting. Bargnani seemed to have handled the pressure of the playoffs despite being a rookie and responded well.

No, Bargs started in game 4. But with Bosh, Bargs and Rasho, 3
7 footers(Bosh just about) all starting, what defence do we play? Obviously we should play zone right? Nope, the Smitch has us play man to man, and we get blown out of the water.

BigBob13 · Post #15 » by **BigBob13** » Tue Feb 5, 2008 12:05 am

I can never figure out why we dont play more zone defense. We rarely employ it and when we do it's surprisingly effective (Charlotte Bobcats come to mind). It would force teams to shoot more and try to be more active in breaking it down and we could cause nightmares with 3 nearly 7 foot guys playing down low. Oh well, another discussion for another thread.