Road teams pushing back in early days of NBA playoffs, stealing away the home-court advantages

by | Apr 22, 2026 | Sports

The first six games in this season’s playoffs all had something in common. The home teams all prevailed, winning by an average of 18.5 points per game.And since then, chaos. Road teams figured out how to avoid being pushovers.Of the six first-round series that have completed two games, only two higher-seeded teams — Cleveland and the Los Angeles Lakers — have managed to hold serve at home and take 2-0 series leads. Oklahoma City could join the Cavaliers and Lakers in that club if it beats Phoenix in Game 2 of that series on Wednesday.Otherwise, that home-court advantage teams spent 82 games of regular-season basketball trying to obtain? It’s already gone, meaning a whole bunch of Game 3s are coming up later this week with lower-seeded teams feeling pretty good about their chances at springing an upset.— East No. 8 Orlando beat No. 1 Detroit in Game 1 of their series on Sunday. The Pistons will try to salvage a split when the series resumes Wednesday.— East No. 6 Atlanta beat No. 3 New York on Monday, while West No. 6 Minnesota beat No. 3 Denver later that night.— And on Tuesday, East No. 7 Philadelphia beat No. 2 Boston, and West No. 7 Portland beat No. 2 San Antonio in a game in which the Spurs saw Victor Wembanyama depart with a concussion in the first half.Cleveland is up 2-0 on Toronto, while the Lakers are up 2-0 on Houston.“It’s the playoffs,” Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said after his team — which beat the 76ers by 32 points in Game 1 — lost by 14 points in Game …

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