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SALT LAKE CITY - It's like going to grandma's house for Thanksgiving or jumping in your mom's bed or coming home to play at Energy Solution's Arena, it solves all woes.
At this point everyone in the world should know that the Jazz are a great home team and a horrific road team. This has been evident this season with two home wins and three road losses to bring the grand total to 2-3.
Now, why is this so?
The Lakers game might be the most puzzling game to try and figure this problem out with because there are so many Lakers fans at these games. It seems like it isn't the fans that are the reason the Jazz succeed, but it could be the reason visiting teams fail.
Some might say that home teams will get the calls from the refs, they will be swayed by the crowd, clearly this wasn't the case against the Lakers. The Jazz shot 18 free throws, six of which closed out the game in the final two minutes. Kobe Bryant of the Lakers shot 17. Dwight Howard got 12, that means two Lakers players basically had more free throws than the Jazz team did.
In the first game on Halloween turnout was sparse. There were green seats everywhere, but the Jazz still fed off the emotion there and put it into high gear to blow away the Mavericks by the end.
"Home is the confidence of your home floor, your home fans," head coach Tyrone Corbin said. "You get down your fans either give you a reaction to pull you through it or cheer you on and make you get a bigger run."
Confidence. How many times would they shoot from the same spot through the season? Maybe they have a fan in the crowd that cheers them on. Maybe family is nearby. Mo Williams had another brilliant performance against the Lakers finishing with 16 points and seven assists, and he has an idea about home court.
You sleep in your own bed at home. You drive your own car. You leave your home at your normal time. It's just different on the road.
–Mo Williams
"You sleep in your own bed at home," Williams said. "You drive your own car. You leave your home at your normal time. It's just different on the road."
He later also brought up a good point, there is a reason why teams have a better record at home. This isn't a problem simply for the Jazz. However, where it lies for the Jazz is finding out how to make the road lows a little better.
"On the road it's you against the world," Corbin said. "Basically it's just your team, so you got to make sure you stay together and focus. It becomes an uphill battle the entire time out. More so than when you get a lull at home, it's an uphill battle the entire time you are on the road so you got to make sure you understand it's a grinder. You can't relax when it's going good and you can't get too down when it's not going your way. You just got to keep fighting."
Is it confidence that goes away on the road? Maybe players think the home team should win. It might be the mental aspect whereby you go into a person's house you show them respect. But according to Enes Kanter, the Jazz aren't going to show that to Denver tomorrow as they travel to face the Nuggets. He thinks the quick stop off at home has helped the Jazz get back to playing good ball and ready for the rest of the season.
"Now we feel so much better," Kanter said. "We are going to go to Denver. Denver is a real good team, but we are just going to go out there and we are going to win that game."
So, what is it. Looking at the splits from home and road there isn't much that is shockingly different. Yes, they Jazz are better at home, but a blowout helps that. They are shooting 45 percent on the road from the field, which isn't bad. Their 3-point percentage is a little low at 36, but after last year that is shooting lights out.
So, Al Jefferson, what is the problem?
"I'm not really sure. Whatever it is it got to be fixed."
It might be everything. It might be nothing. Three games is a small sample size, but Jefferson is dead on when he says it has to be fixed.
