LaMarcus Likes the Home Cooking

[Boob-No-More]

I know it's very early and six games are not indicative of a long term trend, but has anyone else noticed that LaMarcus is playing WAY better at home than on the road. He's had three great games at home - and the Blazers have won all three. He's had three below average (being nice) games on the road and the Blazers have lost all three. Here's his home and away stats through six games:

Home: 24.7 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 2.0 APG, 2.7 BPG, 0.526 FG% 
Road: 14.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 1.7 APG, 1.3 BPG, 0.400 FG%

It will be interesting to see how LaMarcus plays on this 4-game road trip.

FWIW, his home/away numbers last season were nearly identical. So, this probably isn't a long term issue.

BNM

 

[hasoos]

Hmmmm. Maybe you might have taken a look at the rest of the team and noticed, that hey, amazingly enough the whole team sucks on the road so far, and performs much better at home. I mean, it's not like Brandon Roy performed badly all season until the last 2 minutes of the Houston game. Oh wait he did. Or Travis Outlaw really stunk it up until the Houston game. Oh wait, he did too.....

 

[handiman]

Also, look at who he was matched up against in those road games ... Gasol/Bynum, Amare/Shaq, and Boozer/Okur. With Yao being held in check by Joel, Duncan being spread thin by injuries to his teammates, and Minnesota's bigs being fairly one-dimensional, LMA's home match-ups were much more favorable.

 

[Boob-No-More]

While it's true the the team, in general, struggles on the road, LaMarcus has the biggest disparity between his home and road stats - through six games. Roy scores 5 fewer PPG on the road. Outlaw actually averages more PPG and shoots a higher FG% on the road. Rudy is averaging 6 more PPG and shooting much better (0.516 vs. 0.400) on the road. So, not everybody is struggling on the road the way LaMarcus is - and certainly not to the same degree.

I do think there is something to the match-ups issue. For whatever reason, LaMarcus seems to always put up big number against the Spurs - regardless if the game is in San Antonio or Portland. He just seems to get up for playing against Duncan. He also has a big advantage against the Houston power forwards (one the Blazers don't exploit nearly enough). He's longer, quicker and more athletic than Scola. He has 2 - 3 inches on Landry and 5 - 6 inches on Hayes. He's put up big numbers against Utah in the past. Again, he has a couple inches on Boozer and is quicker. Okur us a slow plodding unathletic defender. He's never had a problem scoring on Utah's bigs in the past. So, I just chalk that game up to having an off night.

As I stated in my original post, the sample size is too small to be indicative of a long term trend. It's just that his home and away numbers are SO different through six games that it really jumped out at me - especially since there was no such disparity last season.

BNM