Home court advantage in the NBA? You bet!

It’s long been held that there is a distinctive home court advantage in the NBA. The numbers certainly confirm this. Consider this:

• Through games of January 5 this season, the home team won 58.1 percent of NBA games.
• Last season, home teams won 58.4% of all games in the league.
• Twenty-two of the 30 NBA teams had a winning percentage above .500 in home games this season (through January 5); only seven of the 30 teams had winning percentages above .500 in road games this year.

So, are there some teams (or arenas) that are more of a home court advantage than others? Let’s take a look at the home court stats for NBA teams over the past two-plus seasons. Since the start of the 2015-16 NBA season through games of January 5, 2018, every team has a higher winning percentage at home than on the road.

Two teams, Cleveland and Indiana, are almost 250 percentage points higher at home than on the road. The Cavs have a winning percentage of .782 at home since the start of the 2015-16 season and a road percentage of .535, a difference of .247 percentage points. The Pacers are at .647 for home games in the same time frame and at .400 for road games; again, a difference of .247.

Here’s a look at the each of the 30 NBA teams and how much higher their home winning percentage is over their road winning percentage since the start of the 2015-16 season.

.247        Cleveland, Indiana
.244        Detroit
.241        Utah
.238        Charlotte
.231        Chicago
.230        Oklahoma City
.226        San Antonio
.214        Milwaukee
.207        New York Knicks

.193        New Orleans
.188        Portland
.186        Toronto
.173        Washington
.169        Orlando
.163        Memphis
.160        Boston
.158        Brooklyn
.155        L.A. Clippers
.153        L.A. Lakers
.149        Dallas
.148        Denver
.139        Atlanta
.119        Miami
.106        Minnesota
.101        Houston

.095        Philadelphia, Phoenix
.080        Golden State
.061        Sacramento

Stats on Tapp