Game location influences basketball players' performance across playing positions.

Abstract

Home advantage in sport has been the subject of much empirical work, although the 3 causes underlying this effect are still unclear. In team sports such as Basketball, available 4 literature has analyzed home versus away performances at a team level. The present study 5 investigated the presence of home advantage at the level of the individual player’s position. It 6 also attempted to identify a subset of game-related statistics that could discriminate home and 7 away performances according to each player’s position. To achieve these aims, archival data 8 were obtained from 225 games for the 2004-2005 Euroleague. Players were subdivided so 9 that the “point guards” and “offguards” were pooled as guards (n=493), the “small forwards” 10 and “power forwards” were grouped as forwards (n=485) and the centres (n=233). A 2x3 11 (game location: home and away; playing position: guards, forwards and centres) factorial 12 MANOVA followed by a discriminant analysis was performed. For the guards, the 13 discriminant function was significant and the game-related statistics that differentiated most 14 home and away performances were the successful two point field-goals, defensive rebounds, 15 assists, steals, blocks and committed fouls. The forwards’ home and away performances were 16 discriminated by successful free-throws, assists, steals, blocks and committed fouls. The 17 function for centres was non significant. Results suggested a differential effect of home 18 advantage in basketball players by role in the team, with guards from home teams playing 19 more assertively, whereas in away teams forwards played more assertively. These results 20 provide initial evidence to support a position specific approach when preparing for home and 21 away games in team sports.

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