Gary Sutton

But the NBA went out of its way to – there were designated visiting and home teams when those final games were played in Orlando.

Right.

And the arena, wherever they were playing, was decked out in the colors.

Yeah, the arena was decked out in the colors of the designated home team.

So they were trying to simulate a home game for the team that was designated the home team.

I looked at foul calls, so personal foul calls and free throw attempts over several seasons.

And what I discovered was home teams are called for fewer fouls and home teams attempt more free throws as a result than visiting teams.

Wow.

And that holds up over the course of an NBA season.

And

I won't get into all the details here, but there are statistical tests you can run to determine if that variance is meaningful or is it just random, right?

And when you run the tests, the probability that those variances are by randomness is really, really low, really low.

So I think part of the home court advantage is driven by the fact that home teams are called for fewer fouls and home teams do commit or do attempt more free throws.

But the bigger part might be, and you know this because you play, foul calls can disrupt the flow of a game.

So if you're a star player and you're called for your fourth personal foul early in the third period, you're going to sit.

That wasn't necessarily the plan.

The plan was you're going to play for most of the third period, but you're going to sit if you're called for your fourth foul early on.

So

I think that's a contributor to home court advantage, is the fact that, as I've said, home teams aren't called for as many fouls as their visiting opponents, and they get the opportunity to shoot more free throws.

But yeah, you also leave open the possibility that the flow of a game is disrupted.