Today’s Sportstat: May 2, 2019
The Bucks take their playoff show against the Celtics on the road
With two games in Milwaukee resulting in a split for the Bucks and Boston Celtics, the two teams head to Boston for the next two games. The Bucks will need to do what the Celtics did in their two games in Milwaukee… take a least one of the two games on the road, to regain home court advantage.
Winning on the road is not always an easy path to navigate. From the start of the NBA in 1946-47 through the first two games of this year’s second round playoff contests, road teams are a combined 1,368-2,615, a winning percentage of .343, meaning road teams have won about one-third of the playoff games in league history.
Here are some interesting stats concerning playoff road games and how well the Bucks have performed on the road in the post-season and against the Celtics in Boston.
- Over the past 19 playoff seasons (2000-18), road teams are 550-1009, a .353 winning percentage, just a tad higher than the career .343 winning percentage of road teams in the playoffs noted above.
- Since 2000, the Cleveland Cavs have the best road playoff winning percentage at .526. They are followed by the Golden State Warriors at .519. Only five other teams have a winning percentage of .400 or better in road playoff games since 2000: San Antonio, the Lakers, Brooklyn, Miami and Phoenix. The Bucks rank 23rd on the list with a road playoff record of 9-28 (.243) since 2000.
- The Bucks all-time road playoff record is 43-81 (.347).
- Since 2015, the Bucks are 4-8 in road playoff games; that includes the two road playoff wins against the Detroit Pistons this season.
- Milwaukee is only 5-15 (.250) in their last 20 road playoff games.
- The longest road playoff winning streak for the Bucks is six games… the Bucks accomplished that in 1971-72.
- The Bucks have lost 12 of the last 13 road games in Boston against the Celtics.
- The last road playoff win for the Bucks versus the Celtics was on May 13, 1987, a 129-124 victory in the Boston Garden.
- Milwaukee is 5-13 all-time versus the Celtics in playoff games played in Boston.
- The Bucks won one road playoff game against the Celts in 1987, two in 1983 and two in 1974.
- The Bucks have won eight of the last 20 regular season games against the Celtics in Boston. Since the start of the 2012-13 season, the Bucks are 7-6 versus the Celtics in away games played in Boston.
What does all this mean? If the series goes to seven games, the Bucks will have to win at least one game of the three remaining in Boston and win both remaining games in Milwaukee to win the series. A win for the Bucks in Boston in either game Three or Game Four is crucial. A pair of losses in Boston would force the Bucks to win the final three games of the series, a formidable task.
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Today’s Sports Stat: May 27, 2018
With their Game Six win over Houston, the Golden State Warriors forced a Game Seven in the Western Conference Finals. By doing so, for the first time in almost 40 years we have both conference finals series going to a decisive Game Seven.
The last time both conference finals series went to a seventh game was in 1979 when the Seattle Supersonics beat the Phoenix Suns in Game Seven to advance to the ’79 NBA Finals and the Washington Bullets won Game Seven over the San Antonio Spurs to reach the finals that same year. The only other time both conference finals went to a seventh game was in 1963.
For the Celtics and Rockets this year, they have history on their side when it comes to conference finals Game Seven; the home team has won Game Seven of the conference finals 26 of the 33 times. The good news for the Warriors and Cavs is that there have been seven times when an away team has won Game Seven of conference finals. Those seven times:
1968: Boston
1971: Baltimore
1973: New York Knicks
1976 Phoenix
1982: Philadelphia
2002: Los Angeles Lakers
2005: Detroit
As you might expect, the Boston Celtics have had the most Game Seven wins in the conference finals (also called the division finals at one time). The Celts have won seven Game Sevens in conference/division finals. The Lakers are second in this category with five such wins.
On the flip side, the Indiana Pacers have lost the most conference/division finals Game Sevens with four. They are followed by the Celtics, Philadelphia76ers and St. Louis Hawks with three each.
One final stat: The 33 teams that have won a conference/division finals by winning Game Seven have only gone on to win the NBA Finals that year 16 times. Fatigue factor?
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Today’s Sports Stat: May 21, 2018
Not that the Houston Rockets needed any more bad news after their 126-85 drubbing at the hands of the Golden State Warriors in Game Three of their Western Conference Finals series, but suffering a 40-point loss in the conference finals did not bode well for previous teams who suffered such a classic beatdown.
The Rockets 41-point loss to Golden State was the sixth time in conference finals history that a team has been defeated by 40 or more points. And in four of the previous five times, the team that lost that blowout also lost the series.
Here’s a look at the six conference finals games where there was a 40-point differential in the score.
1958: St. Louis 145, Detroit 101 (44-point difference)
1973: L.A. Lakers 126, Golden State 70 (56-point difference)
1982: Boston 121, Philadelphia 81 (40-point difference)
1985: L.A. Lakers 153, Denver 109 (44-point difference)
2017: Cleveland 130, Boston 86 (44-point difference)
2018: Golden State 126, Houston 85 (41-point difference)
The only team to lose a conference finals game by 40 or more points and still win the conference finals series were the 1982 Philadelphia 76ers. Boston defeated the 76ers 121-81 in Game One of the series, a 40-point whupping, but the 76ers ended up winning the series in seven games and advanced to the NBA Finals that year.
Will the Rockets fall in the series, or will they be able to recover from this historic loss and win the series against the Warriors?
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Today’s Sports Stat: May 12, 2018
The next round of the 2018 NBA playoffs are set with the Boston Celtics taking on the Cleveland Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals and Golden State Warriors facing the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals.
The home court advantage will likely be a factor in both series. The Celtics will have the advantage in the East, while the Rockets will host four of the potential seven games in the West.
Consider this:
Of the 64 games played so far in the NBA playoffs this season, home teams are 46-18, a .719 winning percentage. In fact, the four teams remaining in the playoffs are 23-2 at home in this post season (a staggering .920 winning percentage) while these same four teams are only 9-9 (.500 winning percentage) as the away team in this year’s playoffs.
Here’s a look at each of the remaining four teams’ records in home and away playoff contests this year:
Boston: 7-0 at home; 1-4 on the road
Cleveland: 5-1 at home; 3-2 on the road
Golden State: 6-0 at home; 2-2 on the road
Houston: 5-1 at home; 3-1 on the road
Let’s take a look back to 2010. The Celtics, Cavs, Warriors and Rockets have been regulars in the post season in the last nine seasons, although the Rockets have not played as many post-season games as the other three since 2010. Following are the home and away records in the post season of the four teams since 2010.
Team, Home record/Away Record
Boston, 35-16 (.686)/17-31 (.354)
Cleveland, 31-9 (.775)/26-15 (.634)
Golden State, 41-8 (.837/23-19 (.548)
Houston, 19-10 (.655)/9-17 (.346)
The Cavs and Golden State are the only two teams of the 30 NBA squads to have a winning percentage over .500 in road playoff games since 2010.
One final stat:
Home teams are 59-30 in conference finals since 2010, a .663 winning percentage.
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Today’s Sports Stat: March 6, 2018
The Houston Rockets have now won 15 straight games becoming the third franchise in NBA history to have four or more consecutive winning streaks of 15 or more in their history.
The Rockets team record is 22 straight which they did from January 29, 2008 to March 16, 2008. They also had a pair of 15-game winning streaks back in the 1990s; one was in the 1992-93 season and the other was the following year during the 1993-94 campaign.
Both the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers franchises have had six winning streaks of 15 or more, topping the list.
Here are the franchises that have had the most winning streaks of 15 games or more in their history.
6: Boston, L. A. Lakers
4: Houston
3: Milwaukee, San Antonio, Washington
2: Golden State, N.Y. Knicks, Phoenix, Portland, Utah
1: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, L.A. Clippers, Miami, Philadelphia, Rochester Royals
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