Philadelphia 76ers, meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Philadelphia 76ers are destined for disappointment in the postseason if they can’t right the ship on the road

Homecourt Advantage (noun) – the advantage of playing on your home court in front of fans who are rooting for you.

We are all familiar with this phenomenon in the sports world. From Duke’s Cameron Crazies, Texas A&M’s 12th Man, Kansas City Chief’s National Anthem antics, to Trinity College’s Silent Night tradition; fans thrive when their beloved team is playing at home and throw caution to the wind with reckless abandon in hopes of providing any sort of competitive advantage.

For the players themselves, the advantage of playing at home spans even further than the support of rowdy fans. Familiar environments, a consistent routine, and simply being around the people you’re accustomed to all factor into the benefits of playing at home. The NBA is no different, with 24 of 30 teams currently holding a marginally, to considerably better record at home than on the road.

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And then there’s the Philadelphia 76ers.

The discrepancy between the 76ers’ record at home and on the road is strangely reminiscent of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous gothic novella. For the more contemporary fans, picture Superman without Kryptonite compared to Superman facing Kryptonite. Philadelphia boasts a league-best 25-2 record at home with some noteworthy wins against Milwaukee, Boston, Lakers, Clippers and other dominant teams this season. Meanwhile, their road record is a measly 9-19.

This stretch features a recent four-game losing streak along with a 10-point defeat at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks. It certainly isn’t uncommon for teams to perform better at home than on the road. But to contextualize how glaring this difference is for Philly; their home winning percentage of 92.3 percent is far and away the best in the NBA this season and their win percentage 32.1 percent on the road lands squarely in between the road records of the Charlotte Hornets and Detroit Pistons.

We can safely say that these figures are alarming, particularly for a team with title aspirations. But what on Earth is causing this gap in performance, and how impactful will it be?

Plenty of NBA writers, myself included, have hurled criticism towards the overall effectiveness of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Even beyond their two marquee players, spacing and lack of shooting have been massive question marks throughout this season. Despite that, the 76ers are an elite offense and dominant defense at home.

If only taking games played in the Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia would rank 7th in 3-point percentage, top 5 in field goal percentage, rebounds per game, and assists per game, third in steals per game, fifth in opponent field goal percentage, second in opponent 3-point percentage, and first in opponent points per game across the NBA.

Extrapolating those same measurements from Philly road games across league averages, Philadelphia falls the 28th in 3-point percentage, 23rd in field goal percentage, 13th in assists per game, 19th in rebounds per game, 28th in points per game, 13th in steals per game, 28th in points per game, 23rd in opponent field goal percentage, 26th in opponent 3-point percentage, and 15th in opponent points per game.

TL;DR: lots of incredible stats at home and those same stats are horrendous on the road.
The strength of schedule and the level of competition have to be the easiest diagnoses for this, right? Sure, maybe a little. Roughly 46 percent of their home games are against teams with winning records compared to 52 percent of their road opponents have had winning records, but that discrepancy alone can’t account for the drastic difference in home vs. road Philly.

The most alarming trend I found was that the 76ers are only 1-12 as an away underdog, good for worst in the league. Is it execution? Is it game planning? How about off-the-court factors? It’s hard to determine exactly what is causing Philadelphia’s road woes, but they will need to address them before the Playoffs begin.

As it stands right now, the 76ers are 5th in the Eastern Conference and 2.5 games behind the Miami Heat for the 4th seed. Considering everything written above, that statement should send chills down the spines of any Sixers fan. This team expected to win the Eastern Conference in the Regular Season and legitimately compete for a title. Bearing in mind that they wouldn’t have homecourt advantage if the season were to end today coupled with the fact that they’d be a road underdog in a series with the Heat, they are looking down the barrel of a first-round exit.

Can you imagine the chaos and fallout in Philadelphia if that chain of events materializes? For some historical context as to why the Sixers need to address their road woes, only three teams this century have made the NBA Finals with a losing road-record with none of them winning the title. Even more alarming, nine of the last 10 NBA Champions finished the season top 3 in road winning percentage.

We know the Sixers have the capability to be one of the absolute best teams in the NBA. Their home record and production show that in spades. However, if their road production and recent NBA history are any indicators, it will be another disappointing playoff exit for the 76ers.

New additions Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III aren’t going to be Nick Foles for this team either. Brett Brown, Simmons and Embiid, and the rest of the organization need to find a way to right this ship on away from home if they want any hope on capitalizing on their preseason expectations.