After last night's game, I got to thinking, 'Why can't we protect home court in the postseason?' We were up 2-0, had all the momentum in the world, and a raucous crowd behind us, yet it was Houston who threw the first punch and it felt like an uphill climb for the majority of the game. I truly believe there is not a more rowdy bunch of fans in the NBA than the Maniacs, yet time and time again our Trail Blazers don't defend Home Court like they should. And no, this is not a knee-jerk reaction from an emotionally-draining Game 3 loss in overtime. Since the 2000 WCF against the Lakers (the start of our playoff advancement drought), Portland is just 8-8 at home over the course of their last six playoff series' (2000 Lakers: 1-2, 2003 Mavericks: 2-1, 2009 Rockets: 2-1, 2010 Suns: 1-2, 2011 Mavericks: 2-1, 2014 Rockets: 0-1). In all but one of those series', the Blazers did not have Home Court Advantage, which puts the onus of winning in the Rose City, because now you're asking your team to win more than once on the road. Maybe the early 90's Blazers spoiled me. Against Western Conference foes spanning from 1990-1992, the Trail Blazers were an incredible 25-1 at home over the course of nine series' (1990 Mavericks: 2-0, 1990 Spurs: 4-0, 1990 Suns: 3-0, 1991 Sonics: 3-0, 1991 Jazz: 3-0, 1991 Lakers: 2-1, 1992 Lakers: 2-0, 1992 Suns: 3-0, 1992 Jazz: 3-0) I know different teams, different eras, different coaches, but it just seems a little odd to me that as deafening as it gets in Portland, we're not burying teams like we should. Again, not a knee-jerk reaction. I think if we take Game 4 on Sunday, we're in prime position. This is just something that popped in my mind and wanted to see if anyone else thought the same thing.
Houston is a good team with good players. Sweeping them was fun to think about, but highly unlikely. Game 4 is tomorrow!
Since 2000 we've had progressively worse teams that are naturally less likely to protect hone court against very good teams? And we're only now at the point where we have two players who are threats to score 30 on any one night? Seems pretty obvious to me. ...oh and the whole "corporate sponsers want longer series at every opportunity do the NBA rigs games to make that happen" thing.
I think teams concentrate better in the road. I had the sense being at the game the Blazers were wearing themselves out feeding off the emotions from the crowd. It was pure electricity all night and they seemed spent late.
Why are you omitting the fact that we went 0-3 at home in the 1990 NBA Finals and 1-2 in the 1992 NBA Finals? With a championship on the line, we were awful.
