At the beginning of every NBA season, you hear commentators say "This team needs home court advantage to win in the playoffs. That refrain is heard all through the season. And usually, those guys are right. However, what's going on in round 2 of the playoffs makes me wonder if homecourt is the only way teams can win in this round.

Including last night's games, the home team is an incredible 19-1 in round 2. Only the Pistons in game 4 of their series with Orlando, and the final score was 90-89! The Celtics, the team with the best regular season record, are winless in five road playoff games (by the way, the last team to make the Finals without a road victory in the playoffs was the 1963 Lakers, and they only played one playoff series to get there). How has homecourt suddenly become unstoppable?

With that in mind, here are some possible solutions to allow the road team a chance to win at least once in the games coming up:

Have Robert Horry hipcheck someone (Chris Paul) into the boards, forcing a benched David West and Tyson Chandler to get off the bench, leading to their one-game suspension for game 7 in New Orleans: Hey, it worked against Phoenix, didn't it?

Have Joe Crawford re####ame with Tim Duncan, then allow them to really fight: Crawford would give the stoic Duncan a war, but the smart money is on Duncan.

Have DeDoNothing Stevenson badmouth one of the road teams' best players and call them overrated before the game: It made LeBron want to knock out the Wizards, and I found a way to keep my nickname in the news.

Warn the Hornets, Lakers and Celtics the 'consequences' of another Spurs-Pistons Finals matchup: That thought, in Stern's mind, is scarier than the 'Saw' series! He'll threaten the Lakers with a Kobe trade if they fail to make it!

Tell the remaining teams if they fail to win on the road, some of the players will be traded to the Knicks!: A fate worse than death, perhaps? They'll play their butts off to win then!

Have Tony Romo sing for the home team before their game: They'll be so frazzled, they won't be able to concentrate and stop the opponent!

Take the home team to watch 'Speed Racer' before the game: See above.

If they fail to win, the road team's players must watch all of Shaq's movies... without a break!: See the Knicks above.

Yeah, this may be sarcastic, but what's preventing these teams from winning A ROAD GAME? I'm not saying that every win should be on the road, but a figure closer to round 1's figure (7 of 10 wins by the home team) would do. What makes these games so hard to watch is that, for the most part, they are blowouts, and blowouts don't interest the casual fans and make diehards fall asleep, too.

So, what's your take? Does this homecourt dominance take away from the excitement of the playoffs? And what would you suggest to fix it? Let me know! Until then, may everyone run should Romo sing in front of a theater showing 'Speed Racer'!

The NBA playoffs continue tonight with game 4 between the Spurs and Jazz (another must-win for the Jazz), but before I delve into that, lets look back at the previous night's Cavs-Pistons game. Being a Detroit resident, I watched the local news stations promote this game, and one of their reporters said that a Piston win was practically a given. What struck me as odd was he also said "The Pistons have learned from the past not to take the Cavs lightly, and they should win tonight.". Well, they didn't get the job done, and even more dangerously, they have given LeBron James confidence that he can take (and make) the clutch shots at the end. Witness his posterizing dunk on Rasheed Wallace, his big three pointer, and the clinching jumper that had Rasheed wondering if he should stay with his man or help out on LeBron. I'm not saying the series is going to shift (Detroit should win) but they don't seem to take very seriously any team until they have to. Think of it like the Lakers ealier in the decade; the Pistons flip the switch only when it humors them. Remember last year as well; they blew a 2-0 lead against this same team, letting them win three straight, before winning the last two. You know what they say; play with fire, you'll eventually get burned. As for tonight's game, it hinges on the status of Jazz PG Deron Williams, who missed practice with a stomach ailment yesterday. Williams was the key guy in Utah's blowout win the other night, and the offense will surely suffer if he can't play, since Derek Fisher has been the two-guard in his offense, and if he has to shift, Gordon Giricek would be forced to start (a scary proposition). Looking at it objectively, Tim Duncan probably won't have another off game, and I've seen Memhet Okur in action; he is not consistent on defense. Duncan will have a good game, and Tony Parker will likely challenge Williams (if he plays) or Fisher with his drives to the hoop, and I see the Spurs winning tonight, then finishing the Jazz off in game 5. Getting back to Detroit, they probably will jack off game 4, then kick it back into gear at the Palace in their game 5. The Pistons win the series in 6, then the world can yawn at another Spurs-Pistons final. Gives you thrills, doesn't it? Oh well, at least it beats the lame finals in hockey and yesterday's Indy 415, er, 500, huh?

I had been posting blogs about the NBA playoffs round by round in recent weeks, predicting the winners (for the record, I was perfect as far as who would make it to round three) but I didn't do it this week. Why? Because these series lack any excitement to them. The Cavs-Pistons series has been particularly dreadful to watch; identical 79-76 scores, horrific shooting, and the only glimmer of intrigue is the non-call of Richard Hamilton on LeBron James (I say he wasn't fouled). I fell asleep in each contest before halftime, and haven't regretted it a bit, despite being a basketball nut. The Spurs-Jazz Western Finals isn't as bad in terms of gameplay, but as for drama, we all know this is the consolation Finals being held; the previous series with the Suns was the real Western Finals. The Spurs have this series so wrapped up, they can arrange the time to send David Stern and Stu Jackson a gift basket for handing them the Suns series (and give Robert Horry a raise for "taking one for the team!"). These series only prolong and delay the inevitable: a Spurs-Pistons disaster (and I'm from Detroit!). It isn't bad enough that Oden AND Durant are stuck in the Pacific Northeast, now we must endure slow, low quality ball play. Can't we make a rule that boring good teams must sell off their talent after three years and give them to the more appealing teams? What must it take to get some fun back in these playoffs? Sorry, I must return to bed now. I've got the perfect sleeping pill: Cavs-Pistons game three!

Last night was an eventful one in the NBA. We saw players get suspended, teams slack away another game, and a team move on to round three. Let's get topic #1 out of the way first: the suspensions of Spurs F Robert Horry (2 games for his hockeyesque hip check of Steve Nash) and Suns Fs Boris Diaw and, more importantly, Amare Stoudemire for leaving the bench. The Horry suspension was justified simply because of who was involved. If he had hit Diaw instead, it would have been one game at most or even just a fine. As for Amare and Diaw, I guess David Stern and Stu Jackson really want to decide the best series in round two, because they really didn't need to suspend them. They barely went past the coaches line and didn't up the ante of the fight! Stern and Jackson let their pride get in the way here: they thought "We've been consistent so far; let's suspend the stars anyway!". They don't realize they just swung the balance of the series to the Spurs, not just tonight, but for six and (maybe) seven, because the Suns will wear themselves out tonight and be drained for later. Congrats to them! As for slackers, the Pistons sleepwalked through another blowout loss to the Bulls, this time at home, where they hadn't lost a closeout game in over a decade, and now face a 2006 moment again: another seven game series in round two. What makes this quagmire even more depressing is that Cleveland could finish off the Nets tonight (a likely possibility) and rest and wait for Detroit in round three. Last year, Miami had loits of rest and blew away the Pistons. The sad thing is that the Pistons have let the Bulls get huge leads early in each of the last three games, and had they not made that comeback in game three, they'd be down 3-2! Why are they so complacent? No one knows. They just are. Lastly, Utah became the first conference finalists after knocking off the Warriors, allowing the 'national nightmare', as Charles Barkley has called them, to end. Personally, the Warriors were a great story, and their elimination was not a good thing. However, Utah was simply too big, and Carlos Boozer, as I stated on a previous blog entry, was the key, dominating the paint and the smaller defenders all series. Kudos also for the embattled Andrei Kirilenko, who was huge throughout, as well. That said, the Spurs-Suns winner should win the West. But the Jazz are back as a top tier team again. And Jerry Sloan proved he can win without Stockton and Malone. Well, now I must get ready for tonight's slate. Hopefully Phoenix can survive. Maybe Stern and Jackson can play.