RandBall: Wild, Wolves have stolen the home advantage. Can they finally use it?

The home-field advantage in major sports has diminished over time, owing to several factors. At or near the top of the list: Big-time teams travel with considerable more luxury than they used to, and an improved understanding of health plus sleep science have contributed to road teams being more fresh for away games than they used to be.

But it is still usually an advantage to be the home team and, in the playoffs, to have more home games than road games in a series.

Usually, that is, unless the Minnesota Wild or Timberwolves are involved.

Both of those teams in recent years have fared considerably better in postseason road games than home games.

Half of that trend has already continued this season, with both teams winning one of two road games to start their Western Conference playoff series. We now say that Wild and Wolves have stolen home court/ice advantage, since three of the last five games in the seven-game series are home games.

They will take turns playing Games 3 and 4 at home on four consecutive dates starting Thursday. The advantage is theirs ... if they can finally take advantage of it, as I talked about on Thursday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

But they will have to reverse those recent trends that I mentioned.

In their last four playoff appearances each, counting this season, the Wolves are 8-8 on the road but just 4-10 at home. The Wild’s gap is less pronounced but still significant: 5-7 on the road but just 3-6 at home.

The Wild has started a playoff series on the road in three of the last five seasons, and in each case they have come home with the series tied 1-1 (including, of course, this year against Vegas). But they have been unable to sustain that momentum and capitalize on their home ice edge, ultimately losing the other series.

The Wolves last season started with home court advantage in the first round and secured a four-game sweep of Phoenix. They then went to Denver and won the first two games on the road against the Nuggets before dropping the next two at home.

They only pulled out the series by finally winning a Game 6 at home and then a dramatic Game 7 on the road. But they followed that by losing Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference finals at home to Dallas.

In the 2022 playoffs, the Wolves stole home court with a split of the first two games in Memphis, only to give it right back with a Game 3 loss at Target Center on the way to a six-game series loss.

Long story short: The Wild and Wolves have generally done a very good job putting themselves in position to pull upsets as lower seeds, and they have done a terrible job capitalizing at home.

We will see over the next four days whether one, both or neither of them succeeds this season where they have failed in the past.