The Role of Rest in the NBA Home-Court Advantage

To date, the factors which lead to the very large home court advantage characteristic of the NBA have not yet been well isolated. This study analyzes the relationship between that home court advantage and the comparatively fewer days of rest between games that the NBA schedule imposes on visiting teams. A statistical model has been developed and applied to the NBA data for the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 seasons to estimate the importance of the effect of rest on the magnitude of the home court advantage. The results indicate that lack of rest for the road team, while not a dominant factor, is an important contributor to the home court advantage in the NBA.