Looks like the Spurs have gracifully bowed out of the HCA race. They lost to who??? Where was arroyo???

Arroyo is injured, but not really seriously.

I believe Home Count Advantage (HCA) is very important in the NBA Finals. HCA is not as important in the first three rounds. I say this because the two different formats.

In the NBA Finals, the format is 2-3-2. In the first three rounds, the format is 2-2-1-1-1. With a 2-2-1-1-1 format, it is much easier for the team without HCA to steal one on the road and defend home court. HOWEVER, the 2-3-2 format, the team without HCA must steal one on the road and then, win three straight at home. This is extremely difficult.

In fact, in the history of the NBA Finals, only one team has ever won all three games at home with the 2-3-2 format. That was our 2004 Pistons.

So NBA Final's history as shown that the team without HCA must win 2 on the road to win the series.

I don't think HCA is important anymore. So few series go seven games, and in fact, very rarely does both conference regular season champs meet up.

The playoffs are about who is playing well at the right time.

The only value I see to this, is that the Pistons have reached all of the regular season goals within their control. They can now treat the last few games as exhibitions (which I guarantee they will) and rest/prepare for the playoffs. Kinda like getting your work done early and leaving the office before everyone else on a Friday.

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They are the archetype for dominance. They are the gatekeepers of the conference. They are the Detroit Pistons.

See, this is how I remember HCA. Favorites are like 11-0.
Celts 6-0 [road 0-4]
Magic 5-1 [road 1-3]

In this round..

pistons/magic home team 3-1
Celts/cavs home team 3-0
spurs/hornets home team 3-0
Lakers/jazz home team 3-0

intersting i thought....

Maybe it's seasonal, but in basketball it still very relevent.

Interesting that many of the games weren't really competitive.