As everybody and Lebron's mother knows, the road teams in this year’s NBA playoffs have been atrocious. Among the four series, the road team has gone 2-22 as of Sunday, for a pitiful .083 winning percentage. But the question everyone is asking, and trying to answer, is why? Gelf rounded up some of the most and least popular answers, and ranked them according to how many sources cited them.

"Spineless Zebras"
Slate, Deadspin,The Atlantic, Fox Sports

One of the most prominent arguments is that the refs are favoring the home teams. Whether subconsciously as they get swept up by the crowd's enthusiasm, or as part of a David Stern-led conspiracy to stretch series to seven games, refs seem to be calling more fouls in favor of the home team.

The Crowd Itself
Slate, Atlantic, Deadspin

This argument seems pretty logical. It is easier to play well when tens of thousands of people are rooting for you, rather than against you. Todd Merriman writes in the Atlantic that this applies even more so in basketball, which, "as a game of streaks, is also more heavily dependent on momentum and the proximity of the crowd helps feed that."

Travel
Boston Globe, Slate, Deadspin

In his column on the subject, John Swansburg mentions an interesting study that suggests that home-field advantage was more pronounced in the early years when travel was less comfortable. The variations on that theory today include players being away from their families (Boston Globe), and players being tired out by road groupies and not having a connection for good weed (Deadspin).

Gene Hackman
Slate, The Statesman, Deadspin

Alright, so this isn't really a reason, but no column on the difference between home court and other gyms is complete without a reference to Coach Norman Dale in Hoosiers measuring the height of the rims in the gym before the state-final game.

No Idea
Boston Globe, Sporting News, Fox Sports

"Sometimes," ESPN.com columnist Jonah Keri tells Gelf, "One of the most important elements of being an analyst is the ability to sit back and say, 'It just is.' " And so The Boston Globe and Fox Sports attempt an explanation before deciding they just don’t know. The Sporting News simply dismisses the guessing game with a brief, “go figure.”

The Building Itself
Slate, The Atlantic

Slate suggests that there might be some added benefit from players’ familiarity with the arena, such as the Cleveland scoreboard with “The Diff,” a number that calculates the difference in two-teams point totals for the mathematically-challenged. The Atlantic suggests a more sinister correlation, with hometown officials controlling the play and shot clocks.

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Fan IQ

Deadspin quotes Fan IQ, who dismisses all of the above reasons and then suggests that the reason teams don’t perform as well on the road is because they don’t expect to: “It's not that Cleveland's crowd is the key difference, or that it's making Cleveland play any better, it's that Boston has the preconceived notion that the game will be tougher than it otherwise should be.” That seems kind of far-fetched, but we don’t really have anything better. Many of the teams in this round of the playoffs are pretty evenly matched, and they all boast an impressive home winning percentage during the regular season, as well. When both teams are good, sometimes the slight advantage of playing where you’re used to winning is enough to make the difference.

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