Where's The Party At?

If you want to know why road teams are playing at historically great levels, take a look inside the NBA’s new social scene.

- Tom Haberstroh

SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENS when NBA teams play on the road these days, a trend line that baffles statheads.

In 1987-88, home teams won an astounding 67.9 percent of games, with an average win margin of 5.8 points, the highest on record. The advantage was so profound that home teams, on average, played at the level of a 55-win team.

But then, in less than a decade, the home-court advantage gap was sliced in half. By 1996-97, home teams won only 57.5 percent of the time, with an average margin of only 2.6 points.

After hovering around 60 percent for most of the 2000s, home-court advantage is dropping again. This season it’s sitting at an all-time low of 57.4 percent.

What’s causing the drop? Are refs monitored better and therefore less susceptible to the home crowd’s jeers? Are the crowds themselves quieter, populated as they are by iPhone-gripping, corporate-ticket-holding fans?

Or is something even weirder going on? I spoke with dozens of players, coaches, team trainers and front office execs, and most think the same thing is happening: NBA players are sleeping more and drinking less.

ONE GENERAL MANAGER calls it the “Tinderization of the NBA.” The what?

“Tinderization, like the dating app,” he says. “No need to go to the clubs all night anymore.”

Various apps have done for sex in the NBA what Amazon did for best-selling books. NBA road life is more efficient—and less taxing—when there aren’t open hours spent trolling clubs.

“It’s absolutely true that you get at least two hours more sleep getting laid on the road today versus 15 years ago,” says a former All-Star, who adds that players actually prefer Instagram to Tinder when away from home. “No schmoozing. No going out to the club. No having to get something to eat after the club but before the hotel.”