JJ Redick on how important home-court advantage is to him

The Los Angeles Lakers' winless four-game road trip from several days ago is starting to fade into the background of people's memories now. The team has won three games in a row after downing the Denver Nuggets 120-108 on Wednesday, and as a result, it has risen back to third place in the Western Conference with a 43-25 record. In all likelihood, it will earn the tiebreaker over Denver, which will come in handy should it finish with the same record as Denver.

Therefore, the fight for home-court advantage in as many rounds of the playoffs continues. The Lakers are just one game behind the second-place Houston Rockets, and they will play the Rockets twice at home on March 31 and April 11.

Some feel that home-court advantage doesn't matter in the NBA playoffs, but data and results prove otherwise. Head coach JJ Redick said after Wednesday's game that he'd love for his team to have home-court advantage, but within reason.

"We would all love to have home-court advantage; it would be nice. Our group has been awesome at home so far, but you gotta play the next game and you gotta win the game in front of you.
"I've just seen it too many times -- the basketball gods starting messing around with things. The basketball gods -- they will punish you."

The Lakers have now won nine games in a row at Crypto.com Arena and have fewer home losses than any NBA team, except for the Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers.

They're still waiting for LeBron James and Rui Hachimura to return from injuries that have sidelined them lately. While the team should aim for the second seed in the West, managing the health and workload of its players is even more important.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: JJ Redick on how important home-court advantage is to him

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