Subtitle: You Morons.
Headline after headline this morning, from every direction, says something to the effect of “What happened to the Celtics?” or “Why do the Celtics suck now, when the Cavs sucked last week?” or “The Cavs are now the greatest team in the HISTORY of the – ”
Stop it. Just stop it.
NBA fans are great, but NBA writers are a bunch of reactionary yapping dogs, with the memory of an Alzheimer’s patient in a lethe field. Every year we go through this.
Once again, and PAY ATTENTION, all you journalistic Chicken Littles who think the sky is falling every time it rains:
– In the NBA playoffs, the series don’t start until the home team loses. Now say that about 15 times, to lock it in.
– Seriously, 15 times. In the NBA, the series don’t start until the home team loses. SAY it.
The Cavs/Celtics series wasn’t over after the Celts won big in game one. It wasn’t over when the Cavs inexplicably stopping trying in the third quarter of game two, electing to huck up brick after brick instead of running their halfcourt offense.
Road teams occasionally steal game one, or catch a team on a bad day and bull their way to a win in game two, but usually in close matchups – which Cavs/Celts is – the home team holds court 80 percent of the time.
It wasn’t over after game three, which the Cavs dominated, or game four, which LeBron dominated. In close matchups – which Cavs/Celts is – the lower seed wins its first two home games most of the time when it starts out down 0-2.
Will the home team win game five? Probably. Game six? Most likely. Game seven? Well …
One out of seven is about 15 percent. Road teams IN CLOSE MATCHUPS – which Cavs/Celts is – win about 20 percent of the time. So it’s better than even odds that a road team will win one game.
So what’s the upshot? Repeat after me …. In the NBA, the series don’t start until the home team loses.
“But, but …. what if the home team doesn’t lose???”
Then Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith are common-law married. Thanks for reading.
