Houston Rockets’ Chris Paul (3) and James Harden (13) celebrate after their NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz Saturday, April 20, 2019, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
ORLANDO, Fla. — Road, sweet road.
There were eight NBA playoff games this weekend, and all eight were won by the road team. It’s the first time in NBA history there were eight road playoff wins in a two-day span.
“Road wins are the best, especially in the playoffs,” Toronto’s Kawhi Leonard said.
The Raptors were one of the eight road winners this weekend, prevailing at Orlando on Sunday. Other Sunday road winners included Boston over Indiana, Golden State over the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland over Oklahoma City.
On Saturday, it was Philadelphia over Brooklyn, Denver over San Antonio, Houston over Utah and Milwaukee over Detroit.
Through 30 games of this year’s playoffs, road teams are 16-14. Home teams went 3-0 on Wednesday, and went 2-12 in the four days that followed. Since the NBA went to the 16-team playoff format in 1984, there has never been a first round where road teams won more than home teams.
Home teams won 71 percent of playoff games last season, the NBA’s highest such clip since 2008.