Road Trips really do take their toll

Hayesfan · Jan 15, 2008

thanks to Kelly's 10 man rotation..

Very interesting stats at NBA stuffer.com
NBA Teams Giving Up Road-Trip Enders?

By Serhat Ugur | NBAstuffer.com

Monday, 14 January 2008

What makes me write this article is the New York team. With being the second worst defensive team of NBA, how did the Knicks manage Pistons hold to 65 points? It was their most lopsided victory of the season. Reversely, scoring 65 points against any team definitely worth to think about the reason(s). Here is a breakdown of possible reasons help us see why such results are not as stunning as it seems. Make your own decision on which reason was more dominant for the Pistons-Knicks game.

(1) In fact, it's not a rare occasion that elite teams have motivation problems against weak opponents. At most of the times, they are being favored heavily and opponent's motivation rise up automatically for causing a upset.

(2) We again know very well that some players are choosing games to play hard. Can you name me a few Pistons players choosing the games from schedules? Sometimes they may "guarenSHEED" victories before the games as well.

(3) Tired legs? Most likely the dominant reason. At MSG, the Pistons was playing their 4th game in 5 nights. What's more, they played an overtime game one night ago. "The rest days issue" will be handled on NBAstuffer.com, so check back in later!

(4) Pistons were having the last game of their four game road trip and the players were home-sick. Doesn't this sound as reasonable as the being tired issue? Pistons went 2-1 before playing at New York, so ending the road trip with a 2-2 is not considered as a bad record.

I have researched how NBA teams performed in their at least a three game road-trip enders. The teams playing at least a three game road-trip enders have a 19-37 W/L record. Average offensive efficiency becomes 105.35 which is 1.05 lower than offensive efficiency on the road. Defensive efficiency increases to 110.79 which is 1.09 worse than average defensive efficiency on the road. In other words, offense and defense go worse when ending a road-trips. In table given below, you can find team by team situation breakdown.
HTML:
ROAD-TRIP ENDERS
 	        W	L	Δ OEFF	Δ DEFF
Atlanta	        0	2	-6.95	4.06
Boston	        1	0	0.07	-9.59
Charlotte	0	1	-6.98	11.37
Chicago	        0	1	-10.01	2.56
Cleveland	0	2	-9.91	0.22
Dallas	        0	2	-2.18	5.50
Denver	        1	0	-3.19	-13.57
Detroit	        0	1	-2.99	10.43
Golden State	2	1	-0.75	2.88
Houston	        1	2	2.35	1.67
Indiana	        1	0	-1.95	-8.95
LA Clippers	0	2	-6.55	9.47
LA Lakers	1	0	-8.70	2.26
Memphis	        0	3	-8.14	-4.43
Miami	        1	0	25.95	5.11
Milwaukee	0	1	1.28	-4.43
Minnesota	0	1	-7.18	-11.25
New Jersey	1	0	-0.92	-8.51
New Orleans	1	1	5.37	8.99
New York	1	1	3.80	4.56
Orlando 	2	0	0.99	-5.88
Philadelphia	0	1	-6.18	2.09
Phoenix 	1	2	-6.93	1.13
Portland	2	2	0.57	-5.52
Sacramento	1	2	9.05	5.41
San Antonio	0	0	 	 
Seattle	        0	3	-2.21	3.54
Toronto	        1	1	6.81	8.05
Utah	        1	3	8.33	10.16
Washington	0	2	-3.42	4.26
LEAGUE	        19	37	-1.05	1.09
Δ OEFF: Differential between offensive efficiency on playing road-trip enders and offensive efficiency on the road average.

Δ OEFF: Differential between defensive efficiency on playing road-trip enders and defensive efficiency on the road average.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 January 2008 )
Click to expand...

JayZ750 · Jan 15, 2008

San Antonia hasn't had a single 3 game road trip yet?

I'm still waiting to laugh and laugh when the Lakers have their 12 of 15 game road schedule (including a 9 game road trip and 3 game road trip) next month, without Bynum, and their fast start once again turns to crap.....

(crosses fingers!)

Hayesfan · Jan 15, 2008

JayZ750 said:

San Antonia hasn't had a single 3 game road trip yet?
Click to expand...

San Antonio has played most of their games at home... I just checked 14...
as opposed to our 22

MLittle577 · Jan 15, 2008

They have the Rodeo road trip coming up soon. that's probably why they haven't had as many road games

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