So just how big is the Mavericks' home court advantage in this playoff series? Let's investigate...

A couple of generic records to begin: Dallas went 32-9 at home this year (including 32-5 since losing its first four). Since the all-star break, the Mavs are 15-1 at the AAC.

First of all, let me share a pet peeve of mine: during the playoffs, you'll hear numbers thrown around like "Team X is 22-3 when leading at halftime" or "Team X is 32-9 at home." But what those numbers never take into account is the fact that in the playoffs, you're playing a PLAYOFF team. You're not playing the Sacramentos and Washingtons anymore -- the teams that pad those numbers.

So, with that in mind, let's look into the Mavericks' home-court advantage. Dallas played 18 home games against teams with at least 46 wins, which is to say, teams that were at least 10 games over .500. The Mavs record in those games was 9-9.

But, consider this - the Mavericks began the season 0-4 at home (against 50+ win teams Houston, Cleveland, the Lakers, and Orlando). So obviously, since then, they are 9-5 at home against good teams.

It's also important to note that Dallas won its last 4 home games against teams with 46+ wins (Pheonix, Utah, New Orleans, Houston).

As I mentioned earlier, the Mavs record at the AAC since the all-star break is 15-1, tied for best in the league. Take out the mediocre to bad teams, and their record is still 5-1, with their only loss a 2-point decision to Denver on March 27th.

If we want to go further (which you probably don't), let's take out the home games Dallas played against the class of the league (Boston, Cleveland, and the Lakers), because that's not the type of team San Antonio is. Subtract those three home losses, and the Mavericks are 9-6 at home against teams with 46-59 wins (is this too much yet?).

So, what we have very unscientifically determined is that Dallas is 9-6 at home against very good but not great teams. But let's not forget, after dropping their first four of those games at home (new coach, new system, etc), the Mavs are 9-2 against Spurs-like teams at the AAC.

With all that said, I am not changing my opinion that San Antonio will figure out a way to win a game in Dallas. So the Mavericks will need to win another one on the road to get to the next round.

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