No Home Court Advantage in First Round of NBA Playoffs and Home Court Advantage in Second Round
The year I was born (1984), the NBA playoffs expanded from eight teams to sixteen teams. Since then, 336 teams (42*8) have advanced to the second round. Half of them (168) of course had home-court advantage. Only five of those 168 teams didn't have home court in the first round. 40% (!!) of those five teams played in 2023 NBA Playoffs (the Golden State Warriors and the New York Knicks). The No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 seeds have home-court advantage in the first round of playoffs while the No. 5, No. 6, No. 7, and No. 8 seeds do not enjoy such an advantage.
Three years ago, the Warriors were the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. They defeated the nearby No. 3 seed Sacramento Kings in the first round of the playoffs despite the fact that the Kings had the home-court advantage. The Warriors won Game 7 in Sacramento as star Stephen Curry became the first player ever to score 50 points in a Game 7. The team remained in California for the second round of playoffs as they took on the No. 7 seed Los Angeles Lakers (the Lakers upset the No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies in the first round). In the process, the Warriors became the first (and so far only) team in NBA history to play a team from their own state in two rounds of the same playoffs. Unlike in the first round, the Warriors had home-court advantage for the second round. (Their seeding was higher than that of the Lakers.) The Warriors were unable to take advantage of their good luck as they were stunned by the Lakers. (12 out of 14 ESPN NBA "experts" predicted that the Warriors would win the series.)
In the same playoffs, the Knicks were the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. They defeated the No. 4 seed Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs and it only took them five games to do so. In the second round, they squared off against the No. 8 seed Miami Heat. (Prior to facing their long-time rivals, the Heat shocked the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.) Like the Warriors, the Knicks lost Game 1 at home en route to a series defeat. The Knicks were unable to capitalize on having the home-court-advantage in the second round. (They would have started the series on the road had the Bucks beaten the Heat.)
The '23 Warriors and the '23 Knicks are not the only teams in the NBA history to start the first round of the playoffs on the road and the second round at home: the other teams were the '25 Minnesota Timberwolves, '94 Utah Jazz, and the '87 Houston Rockets. The '25 Timberwolves and the '94 Jazz were the only teams out of the five to win their second-round series. The '94 Jazz then lost to the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals. After beating the Jazz, the Rockets won their first NBA Championship in the fourth round. The following year, the Rockets struggled in the regular season and were just a No. 6 seed in the playoffs.
However, they came alive in the postseason and won the championship as coach Rudy Tomjanovich had this famous line. I was hoping that the 2022-2023 Warriors (also a #6-seed after winning the championship the previous year)
would follow in the footsteps of the '94-'95 Rockets but it wasn't meant to be. Instead of emulating the '95 Rockets, the 2022-2023 Warriors resembled the aforementioned '87 Rockets. The '87 Rockets were also a No. 6 seed that lost to a No. 7 seed in the second round (in six games) after playing against the Celtics in the Finals the previous year.