NBA Playoffs: Your Complete Monday Night Viewing Guide

I have a theory as to why these great individual performances happen now. You see, the best games of the first round of the NBA Playoffs are the ones where the lower-seeded team comes back home. The atmosphere is different, especially when it’s a team that’s a much lower seed. The crowd comes out in full force, because they know that those home games could be the only home playoff games their team plays in the playoffs. The higher-seeded team’s fans, on the other hand, have bigger goals in mind and expect they’ll get more home playoff games in bigger spots, so the enthusiasm just isn’t there.

Just look at the difference between Orlando’s crowd and Charlotte’s crowd in that series. If you ask anyone which home arena has a better regular-season atmosphere, they would all say Orlando. The Magic are a better team, and Charlotte’s arena promotions crew leaves a lot to be desired. But Orlando is supposed to beat Charlotte and go deep in the playoffs, so their crowd just won’t get that excited until later in the playoffs. Meanwhile, this is what Charlotte’s crowd looked like, courtesy SB Nation’s Bobcats blog Rufus on Fire.