Miami Heat know that the road to glory goes through their own backyard: NBA update
After getting thrashed by the Chicago Bulls in game-1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Miami Heat bounced back and clinched a crucial away victory in game-2. The Heat have every reason to be happy, as not only have they neutralized
Chicago’s home court advantage but will also play their next two game at home.
The good news for them for now is that they are the only team that is unbeaten at home in the years’ playoffs and to get their hands on the Larry O’ Brian trophy they know that it has to remain that way.
What must be a real concern for the Heat is that among all the teams left in the competition, they are 0-1 on the home court. Their most immediate threat, Chicago Bulls squeaked out an 87-86 win over them in their only visit on
March.6 this season. However, Heat did beat the Bulls on their home turf on Thursday night and that must be a boost.
Heat forward Chris Bosh said Friday, "We beat the best team in the league on their floor and now the pressure is to keep home-court advantage - and that's extremely important. So, yeah, if we defend home-court from here on out,
you can do the math."
Game-3 will be played at American Airlines Arena in Miami on Sunday night. Heat will enter the American Airlines centre with an added benefit of similarity and crowd support. Besides that some players perform even better when they
play on home-court. One of them is Dwyane Wade, whose career winning percentage at home during the regular-season was 0.674, but when the lights are playoff-bright his fractions shoot up to 0.800.
When Heat forward Udonis Haslem, who has been with Wade in for a long time at Miami, was asked the reason for that, he was perplexed, "That's a great question. I can't really say. Maybe because there's less home games in the playoffs,
less chances to lose, maybe. I think our home crowd has always upped the ante in the playoffs."
At the moment the Heat are 6-0 at home in this postseason, however the flip side of the playoffs is that after reaching so deep in the contest the road teams are also very tough to beat. The most recent example of this is Dallas
Mavericks, who lost their first home game of the playoffs on Thursday night against Oklahoma City Thunder.
To make matters more intimidating for the Heat, Chicago currently share the best road post-season record, 3-2, with the Dallas Mavericks and in those game they have allowed their oppositions to go above 89 points in just one game.
However, there is no denying the fact that the Bulls never faced any team, even close to the caliber of Heat on their way to the Conference Finals. Also, the men from the south beach defeated the Bulls in their game, defense, in
the last encounter and they will face an even stiffer resistance, come Sunday night.
The Bulls have also got a clear message from their game-2 tormentor, LeBron James.
"There's no time for an exhale. We're in the conference finals. We understand that this team is a very hardworking team and they're coming to try to steal home-court back. We've done some great things on our home court in this
postseason and we'd like to continue to do that. Our fans deserve it."
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