Four-Time NBL Champion Questions Home-Court Advantage

The Sydney Kings’ home-court advantage may not be as big of a positive as it seems according to former New Zealand Breaker and four-time NBL champion Alex Pledger.

The Breakers have added a ‘road dog’ element to their game this season. In the NBL23 regular season they lost just three of their 14 road games, while they split their home clashes with seven wins and seven losses.

“Probably one good thing that’s come out of the last two years is they got used to being on the road all the time,” Pledger told SENZ.

“The two Playoff games and all the matchups in the regular season, nobody has won at home yet … that’s the way it’s been between these two teams the whole season.

“I’m sure the Breakers are probably kicking themselves because [Sydney’s] two best players were out and they had an opportunity to go 2-0 up at home.

“They can probably take a little bit of confidence out of the fact they’ve gone to Sydney two or three times this year and won every game.”

With the amount of added time, footage and on-court experience that can go into the scout for both sides in a best of five Playoff series, it’s often the intangibles that can make the difference in a tightly contested series.

Sydney – according to Pledger – won most of their intangibles through their defence. Justin Simon picked up six steals for the game, while Kouat Noi and Jaylin Galloway had two each.

“When the level of scouting and how much you prepare in the Playoffs compared to the regular season, the detail just goes up in several levels.

“Sydney generated a lot of points through their defence … they had live ball turnovers where they were getting it, running the floor and getting dunks.

“When you’re generating cheap points like that, when everyone is so locked into the scout and individual tendencies, making those effort plays goes a long way to winning games as well.

“[But] you can throw a few little wrinkles in there … sometimes you just need a guy who you can just give the ball to and say ‘just got get us a bucket’. [New Zealand] has that with Barry Brown who’s proven to be one of the best fourth quarter performers through the entire year.”

The NBL23 Championship Series is currently evenly poised at one win apiece, with Game 3 set to start on Friday, March 10 at 7:30pm – live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.