The Road Push: Seprating the men from the boys

As we approach the halfway point of the NBA season, trends are beginning to develop between the contenders, potential contenders and of course the pretenders (cough, cough KNICKS). The obvious teams are there in Boston, LA Lakers, Dallas, The LeBron's (if he's not there, they're pretty much a mens league team), Spurs, Atlanta, and Denver. So what differentiates these teams from the mid level and NBDL teams posing as NBA teams(outside of talent, money, and coaching)? It's the fact that these teams always find ways to win on that the road which is the hardest thing to do in sports. Outside of home field advantage in football, winning on the road in the NBA is extremely difficult. Take out the obvious reasons in why it's hard for teams to win on the road (travel, different timezones, and unfamiliarity of your surroundings) and you see how impressive it really is. Good road teams come out strong and take the game to the home side. In basketball, their are always going be runs from both teams, especially in the 4th quarter when the home team is trailing. The good teams find ways to sustain it and find that road push when they need it. When watching the Raps play last Monday and blowing that 23 pt lead to the Pacers, after the game, Triano says the team didn't have their legs and were fatigued from the game on Sunday. WHAT??? Considering Sunday's game was at 1 pm and Monday's was at 7pm, a fringe team like the Raps should have put it away. For Triano to come up with that excuse like that, it would be like Big Kev telling me that Vince isn't injury prone, he's just allergic to contact. The road teams that struggle usually find themselves down big in the early stages of the game. It's usually in the 3rd quarter after teams make their adjustments when you see the road team come on strong. They usually make that big push and will cut the lead to a one or two possession game. Inevitable happens, the home team calls a timeout to regroup and stop the road teams momentum. The road team has exerted so much energy and effort just to make it close, they can't over come the home sides push. That's why the true contenders get it done on the road. When you see Kobe, LeBron, Melo, and Dirk on the road, they step up their game to villain status. They know if you're beating their team, you gotta go through them. It's kinda cool right now in seeing that evolution with Durant and the Sonics (I don't care, they should be in Seattle and not in New Jack City!!!). As a Raps fan, that's all I want see from these guys. They have a good enough squad to make a good push and have proved they can play with the rest of the league. They just gotta stop relying on that "we didn't have our legs" excuse on the road every time they lose. It's as tiring to hear as seeing Jamario Moon trying to take 3 pointers. Hopefully that time comes soon, where the Raps can go into places like Boston, Cleveland, and LA and beat these guys at their own game. In the 2008 finals between Boston and LA, prior to game 4, it was a home series. What changed? When Boston found their road push and were able to overcome LA's lead to win that game. After that game, everyone knew Boston was winning their ring and there was nothing LA could do about that. It's when you win games like those, ball head recognize and respect your game.

post by Kevin S follow us on twitter at, twitter.com/brokeanklesblog email us at, brokeanklesdotblogspot@gmail.com