Modelling home advantage in basketball at different levels of competition

The aim of this study was to find out if there were any differences between the home and road basketballteams that played in three different levels of competition, in nineteen standard and derived statisticalindicators of situational efficiency. The home and road teams from NLB-Adriatic league, Euroleague–regularseason and Euroleague-Top 16 were analysed. Three discriminant analyses have been conducted in order totrack down possible differences between the home and road teams in game stats. Obtained results show thedifferences in game related statistics between the home and road teams from NLB and Euroleague (regularseason) competition. Home teams are characterised by higher number of assists, steals, points and pointsscored by the starting five, while the road teams have more turnovers. This points to aggressive defensiveand offensive tactics of the home teams. There were no statistically significant differences between thehome and road teams played in Euroleague-Top 16. As the quality of competition becomes stronger, theadvantage of home court becomes less dominant. In other words, when the quality of teams is pretty equal,home advantage is low and does not have a dominant and crucial role in winning games.Cilj istraživanja je bio da se otkriju potencijalne razlike izmedu domacih i gostujucih košarkaških timova kojisu igrali na tri razlicite razine natjecanja u 19 standardnih i izvedenih statistickih indikatora situacijskeucinkovitosti. Podaci prikazani u istraživanju pokazuju postotak utakmica u kojima su pobijedile domacemomcadi: NLB-Adriatic liga (66, 85%), Euroleague – regularni dio sezone (66, 10%) i Euroliga -Top 16 (58,33%). S ciljem utvrdivanja potencijalnih razlika u standardnim i izvedenim statistickim pokazateljima izmedudomacih i gostujucih momcadi korištene su tri kanonicke diskriminativne analize. Dobiveni rezultati ukazujuna statisticki znacajne razlike u situacijskim pokazateljima izmedu domacih i gostujucih momcadi koje su senatjecale u NLB i Euroligi (regularni dio sezone). Domace momcadi su imale veci broj asistencija, ukradenihlopti i poena koje su postigli 'starteri', dok su gostujuci timovi imali više izgubljenih lopti, što ukazuje naagresivniju obrambenu i napadacku taktiku domacih timova, dok u Euroligi (Top 16), nije bilo statistickiznacajnih razlika izmedu domacih i gistujucih momcadi. Ovo znaci da što je razina natjecanja kvalitetnija, toje prednost domaceg terena manje izražena. Drugim rijecima, kada su košarkaške momcadi prilicnoizjednacene, prednost domaceg terena je mala i ne predstavlja dominantan i krucijalan cimbenik za pobjedu