Oh, give me a home game. (Courtside Matters).

Traveling in the NBA isn't what it used to be. Today, players fly on luxury charters, steering clear of the hassles of commercial flying. Teams stay in only the best five-star hotels. Even the visitors' locker rooms are much nicer than they used to be. When I played, we felt fortunate if there was hot water for the showers.

One aspect of playing on the road hasn't changed, though. It's still a lot tougher to win in someone else's building than at home. Just look at the standings. Only four teams have a winning record in road games, and 22 teams are better than .500 at home. That's not much different than 20 years ago. In 1982-83, only five of the league's 23 teams had a winning record on the road, while 18 were better than .500 at home.

If coaches knew exactly why teams have such a difficult time on the road, maybe we could do something about it. As much as we can figure, it's a combination of factors that mostly are beyond anyone's control. There's fatigue that comes from traveling, there's the unfamiliarity of playing in different arenas, and there are the hostile crowds.

I'd put travel fatigue at the top of the list. A team sometimes will play at home one night, leave the next morning and cross two time zones to play the following night. It's always tough to have your legs in that first road game. These trips sometimes drag on for a week or more, which will throw off your body clock no matter what kind of shape you're in.

Shooting in arenas where you play only once or twice a season can be difficult. The old Alamodome was so ...