Home-court advantage is granted to the team with the higher seed in the regular season, allowing them to play the first two games of a best-of-7 series at home, as well as the last.

It’s Playoffs time, and playing at home is always an advantage. Your crowd is there with brand-new custom shirts, everyone’s excited, the refs are usually on your side, you can sleep in your own bed…

But stealing an away game is crucial for any NBA Playoff series. For instance, for the higher-seed team that keeps home court advantage, winning away allows them to get home with a 3-1 and two more possibilities to close the series.

Is the regular season Home vs. Away record relevant going on the Playoffs? Let’s quickly study last year’s season results.

2023/24 Season

From the Western Conference only 3 teams that played Playoffs had a better (or equal) Home vs. Away record:

New Orleans Pelicans (21-19 / 28-14)

They didn’t have much to do against OKC in the First Round, finishing 4-0. Curious how they were the best away team in the whole regular season.

LA Clippers (25-16 / 26-15)

Lost in First Round versus the Mavs, but 1 out of their 2 wins came in Dallas.

Dallas Mavericks (25-16 / 25-16)

In this case their record is even for the regular season, but they reached the NBA Finals last year. Their record comparison in the NBA Playoffs:

• Home -> 6-4
• Away -> 7-5

It’s really interesting to see Dallas keeping their regular season away consistency in the Playoffs, as it shows that being a good team on the road can help advancing throughout the Playoffs series.

Let’s jump to the Eastern Conference. In this case we only have one team with a better away record, and it’s not the Celtics.

To give more strength to my arguments here, Boston lost 14 away games during the regular season, while only losing 4 at home. During the Playoffs, they only lost 3 games, 1 at home and 2 away. Keeping the regular season consistency again. But who’s the team whose away record was better in the regular season?

Miami Heat (22-19 / 24-17)

The Butler-less Miami Heat led by Adebayo didn’t have much to do against the Celtics in the First Round last year. But they did won one away game!

As a conclusion from last season, we can say having a balanced home-away game record can help in the post-season when playing on the road. Especially if you are one of the lower-seeded, as Dallas.

2024/25 Season

For now only the Mavs are a strong case for the study here. Let’s check this year’s best away teams in the NBA going into the Playoffs. Will there be a team with a good away record that makes a deep playoff run?

Let’s start again with the Western Conference. There’s only one team with an equal home vs. away record, and a worth-mentioning team with worse record but still close.

Golden State Warriors (24-17 / 24-17)

GSW won play-in and got the 7th seed. As of now, they have already won one away game in Houston. But after Jimmy Butler’s uncertain pelvic injury no one’s sure if they will be able to win anymore. If Butler’s inactive for the rest of the series, they won’t have much to do and this statistic won’t matter.

Minnesota Timberwolves (25-16 / 24-17)

Minnesota has already stolen one game in Los Angeles after the first two. During the last year’s regular season they were good, but still better at home. In any case, during the Playoffs they proved to be a great away team, winning 6 out of 8 away games before losing to the Mavs in the Conference Finals.

Let’s see how they perform this year

Into the other coast, we’ve got a couple of teams in the Eastern Conference. One has a clearly better stat, and the other is even as in other cases.

Boston Celtics (28-13 / 33-8)

Unlike last year, their away record has even improved – and they already proved to be an amazing away team during their Playoff run. gave up only one away game, which turned out to be the 3rd-largest margin in NBA Finals history. Great statistic by the Celtics.

To defy the odds, of course, they have already lost their first game away in the first round against Orlando. Will they lose any more away games?

Detroit Pistons (22-19 / 22-19)

Tied record for Detroit. And they almost stole Game 1 in New York and got away with the win in Game 2. If they continue to be as consistent, being the lower-seeded in these series might even help them, who knows?

They are giving a hard fight until now and hopefully they continue to do so to give us a great series versus the Knicks.

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This post was more of a blind shot to see if any conclusions could be taken from the home versus away record of the NBA teams during the regular season.

Of course, we should make an extensive study on multiple years to see if there’s any trend that proves that having a better away record during the regular season can bring better results in the post-season. But at least we discovered that one of the last years team filling this stat, the Mavs, got an advantage from it in the Playoffs.

Last but not least, an honorable mention to the Washington Wizards, who had a better away record (8-32 / 10-31), which only proves how bad they were this year. They need more support from their fans to even their records and try not to be the worst team in the next 2025/26 season.