Benefit number two: No traditional playoff road games
The Los Angeles Lakers are six games up in the loss column over the current second seed Los Angeles Clippers. With only eight games left in the regular season, it will be nearly impossible for LA’s other team to catch the Purple and Gold for the number one seed. That means the Lakers are a virtual lock to finish on top of the Western Conference standings.
Every team will play their remaining regular season and playoff games in neutral territory at the Walt Disney Center in front of, umm, nobody. So, the number one seed carriers less value than usual because there will be no home-court advantage for any team, which, on the surface, seems like a huge disadvantage for the Lakers.
The Purple and Gold grinded all season to manufacture the wins necessary to gain home-court advantage throughout the Western Conference Playoffs, and now all that hard work has been rendered moot. Here’s the thing, though; the Lakers have the best road record (26-6) in the NBA, and it’s not even close.
The Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets are two of the best squads in the Western Conference. Both teams thrive at home with their fans pumping energy into their blood, and both teams struggle on the road to find that same inspiration they get in the confines of their stadium. Here’s a look at their home/away records:
Denver Nuggets:
- Home: 25-8
- Away 18-14
Houston Rockets:
- Home: 22-10
- Away: 18-14
The Lakers will be favored to beat the Nuggets and the Rockets in a seven-game playoff series, but under normal circumstances, both teams could have been a tough out because of the way they up their play at home. It would have been easy to envision a series against either organization stretching to six or seven games because both squads play at such a high level at home.
Now, the Lakers don’t have to worry about heading to the high-altitudes of Denver or frenzied Houston and facing those crowds. Instead, LeBron James can use his high IQ to pick apart the slightly de-energized Nuggets and the Rockets on a neutral playing field.