No Place Like Home

Just an interesting tidbit that defies the conventional dialogue of the mainstream sports media these days.  Everybody with an opinion and a metaphorical megaphone (be it a sports blog or a tv show on ESPN) has been critical of the Boston Celtics this postseason for their inability to win on the road. 

After dropping all three road games in their first round series against Atlanta (never mind that the Celtics' four home wins totaled a victory margin of over 100 points), the Celtics have most recently lost twice to LeBron James in Cleveland.  This perceived weakness is an area for the media to yap about the Celtics woes and inject some additional drama into the postseason (and who really needs that when LeBron is barking at his mom on mother's day on national TV?), but upon further review, the media's talk appears to be meaningless (indicative of a larger trend within the media, perhaps?).

I am by no means asserting that the Celtics haven't lost on the road in the postseason, but what I do find interesting is that only ONE road team has managed to win in the second round.  The Detroit Pistons beat the Orlando Magic in game 4 of their series in Orlando courtesy of an amazing Tayshaun Prince runner in the closing seconds of regulation that went unanswered by the Magic as time expired and gave Detroit a 3-1 series lead.  The shot was incredible, plain and simple.  The Pistons stole the game without Chauncey Billups and have a commanding lead in the series heading back to Detroit for game 5 tonight.

Aside from Prince's insane lefty runner, the home team has carried every other contest so far in the second round.  Every other series is tied at 2-2, with the home teams having won each and every time.  My question, then, is why do we not hear about the road woes of other NBA Playoff teams that are similarly helpless when it comes to winning in another city away from their home crowd?  

Perhaps it is because the Celtics were so good on the road (and in general) during the regular season that they're held to a different standard, but I personally think that it's just nitpicking.  The Celtics do need to play better on the road and make some minor adjustments, however I think that everybody else in the NBA needs to stop pretending like the Celtics' shit stinks worse than everybody else's and recognize their outstanding and untainted play at home.