As an NBA player, home comforts are nice. Playing at home means you get to sleep in your own bed, you get to warm up with your most familiar routine and the shooting sightlines are exactly what you’re accustomed to. Now, with fans back in numbers, you get the lift of all that noise – which may or may not have a swaying effect on opponents and referees. Psychologists in years past have even speculated there may be an ancient genetic boost provided by the human desire to “protect” the home. All those things combine to give the NBA one of the bigger home-court advantages in sports, with the disparity especially telling during the postseason. According to The Ringer, over a 35-year period from 1984 to 2019, home teams won 61 percent of the time in the regular season, 65 percent in the playoffs. Just one problem – someone forgot to tell the Atlanta Hawks and the Phoenix Suns. The two upstart teams of these playoffs – and, if things continue down their current path, your NBA Finals opponents in a couple of weeks – have no time for custom or expectation. The Hawks, having scoffed in the face of the commonly held belief that they were a young team far too raw to contend, have no plan to listen to the logic that states they’re supposed to lose on the road, either. Wednesday night’s 116-113 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals took Trae Young, John Collins and their group of effervescent pals to a postseason road record of 6-2, eight games in which they have never once started as the bookies’ favorites. They kicked things off against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, where Young found the boos and taunts to his liking, went into Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center to steal Games 1, 5 and 7 in toppling the 76ers, and are now using each pro-Bucks chant emanating from the Fiserv Forum stands as fuel. No one is having more fun than Young, who lit up for 48 points on Wednesday, including an outrageous pass off the backboard to Collins and a shoulder shimmy before nailing a third-quarter 3-pointer. The crowd didn’t like it much. Young did. “Ever since I was in middle school, I loved playing on the road,” Young told reporters. “I loved playing the opposing crowd and opposing team and it feels like you’re really just with your team – it’s just them in the building. “That really just brings our group together. When you are on the road it really forces you to come closer with your teammates, to really find a way to win and I think that’s why I really like playing on the road.” The Suns, too, are just fine when they have to venture from the Arizona warmth. They’ve been essentially unstoppable all playoffs long – wherever the games have been staged – and headed into Thursday night’s Game 3 against the LA Clippers having taken nine straight. On the road, they are 4-1, with the solo blip being their first road game of the playoffs, against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center. Maybe a bit of a rethink is needed across the league. For certain, teams are better at handling the travel component than ever before, with advancements in sleep and hydration technology. And, as more teams have won more, some of the mental element has been taken away. In the first-round series between the Clippers and Dallas Mavericks, Mavs owner Mark Cuban lobbied for extra fans to be permitted, but the Mavs lost all three at home anyway. “Just because you’re home doesn’t mean you’re going to walk out there and win a game,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, who stepped down after his team’s elimination, said. “You’ve still got to keep doing the things that you’ve been doing well in previous games.” At the root of it, that’s what been going right for the Hawks and the Suns. It’s not like they’ve suddenly found some road game elixir, they’ve just been able to play equally well on their travels, drawing inspiration from the perceived adversity to offset some of the real challenges. Having outstanding talent helps, too, with the Suns’ Devin Booker having emerged as one of the best players in the league, and Atlanta’s Young and Collins performing at the kind of level that should see them anointed as genuine, present superstars. “Trae Young knows he is a superstar,” FS1’s Kevin Wildes said on “First Things First.” “Trae has no fear. There’s nothing the Bucks can do to slow him down.” A Finals series between the Hawks and the Suns wouldn’t have been predicted by anyone at the start of the season. According to The Ringer, the Suns and Hawks were 27th and 28th in the league in overall winning percentage the past three seasons. Suffice to say, their turnarounds have been nothing short of incredible. But if they maintain this level of productivity it will be the right matchup, between two teams who hold their nerve, who don’t know when to quit and who always think they should be the favorite – even when they’re on the road. Here’s what others have said … John Collins, Atlanta Hawks: “Trae is a bold dude, to just be frank with you. He lives for those moments. I don’t know what more people need to see from him in the playoffs to let them know he’s a big-time player. He loves the bright lights. I forgot about the shimmy, but that’s just Trae. That’s his swag. If it helps him make the shot, then keep shimmying, my boy.” Chris Kirschner, The Athletic: “Trae Young is going into other people’s homes, plopping on the couch, taking the TV remote and eating the food out of the pantry like he owns the place. As Big Boi once rapped, he’s cooler than a polar bear’s toenails.” Mark Medina, USA Today: “[Devin Booker] talked trash to the Clippers’ bench, most notably Beverley, after draining a jumper. After the game, Booker talked more trash to the Clippers’ bench, which prompted Clippers center DeMarcus Cousins to push him away. The Clippers’ intimidating tactics are not working on Booker.” |
