NBA Playoffs 2025: Road teams win all Game 1s in conference seminfinals

Something unprecedented is happening during the NBA playoffs: Home teams suddenly can’t win.

Something unprecedented is happening during the NBA playoffs: Home teams suddenly can’t win.

During a remarkable three-day run that began Sunday, home court has proven to be no advantage, with road teams going a combined 6-0.

The stretch has been bookended by Golden State victories that saw the Warriors, the seventh seed in the Western Conference, first topple the second-seeded Rockets in Houston in Game 7 of their opening-round series, then open the conference semifinals two days later with a 99-88 win in Tuesday’s Game 1 in Minneapolis against sixth-seeded Minnesota.

Yet the Warriors aren’t the only road warriors.

To open the conference semifinals, Indiana has won twice in Cleveland against the East’s top seed, with the latter decided by Tyrese Haliburton’s game-winning shot Tuesday. And in a pair of Game 1s on Monday, Denver upset the West’s top seed, Oklahoma City, thanks to its own game-winning three-pointer, while New York rallied from down 20 points in Boston to stun the reigning champion Celtics.