Home teams are winning 52.3% of NBA games, the lowest start in 12 seasons outside 2020-21, and four teams are still winless at home

Memphis won 118-102 in Toronto on Monday night and is now 5-0 away from home. San Antonio won 122-96 in Phoenix the same night and is 5-0 on the road as well. Meanwhile four teams, Indiana, Sacramento, Orlando and Chicago, have yet to win a game in their own building.

Those are not isolated cases. Home teams are 80-73 this season in games played in the home team’s arena, a .523 winning percentage. We went through the Basketball-Reference game logs for the last 12 regular seasons, and home teams have not started this poorly in any of them except 2020-21, when most arenas had few or no fans.

Two Ends. One State〽️ent. 😤 pic.twitter.com/1JhSitlrvX

— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) November 10, 2026

The numbers that stand out

• Home teams have won 52.3% of the 153 games played in a home arena so far. Indiana’s loss to Denver in Mexico City on Nov. 7 is left out. Home teams outscore visitors by 1.7 points a game
• From 2014-15 through 2025-26, home teams won between 55.2% and 60.2% of the home games in each team’s first 11 games, apart from 2020-21 at 47.5%
• Four teams are winless at home with at least three home games: the Pacers (0-4 in Indianapolis), Kings (0-5), Magic (0-4) and Bulls (0-3). The most in any of the previous 12 seasons was two, in 2015-16 and 2025-26
• Two teams, the Grizzlies and Spurs, are 5-0 or better on the road. That ties 2016-17 for the most in the sample
• 12 of the 30 teams have more road wins than home wins. Outside 2020-21, when 15 did, no season in the sample had more than nine at the same stage
• Only two teams are unbeaten at home: Boston and Oklahoma City, both 5-0

Home court, season by season

The table compares home games within each team’s first 11 games, which matches where the league is now. Every team has played nine to 12 games, and only the Lakers and Hawks have played 12.

Season	Home record	Home win %
2014-15	97-71	.577
2015-16	93-74	.557
2016-17	99-66	.600
2017-18	91-73	.555
2018-19	100-66	.602
2019-20	96-68	.585
2020-21	77-85	.475
2021-22	95-71	.572
2022-23	95-66	.590
2023-24	95-68	.583
2024-25	90-73	.552
2025-26	97-70	.581
2026-27	80-73	.523

Over full seasons, home teams have won between 54.3% and 59.3% of games in this span, again apart from 2020-21. The early weeks can move a few points either way. In 2024-25, for example, home teams won 55.2% early and 54.4% for the whole season. A start at .523 is still the furthest below that range in the sample.

The extremes this season

Team	Home	Road	Margin in those games
Grizzlies	2-3	5-0	+56 on the road
Spurs	4-2	5-0	+85 on the road
Kings	0-5	1-4	-53 at home
Magic	0-4	2-3	-49 at home
Pacers	0-4	3-3	-33 at home
Bulls	0-3	1-5	-16 at home

Memphis has won more games on the road than at home, where it is 2-3. Its road wins came at Golden State, Sacramento, Utah, Portland and Toronto. San Antonio’s came at Dallas, Utah, Sacramento, Portland and Phoenix, and its 85-point margin in those games is the best road margin in the league. Both teams won in Sacramento, which explains part of the Kings’ 0-5 at home.

In the past, a perfect early road record has been a good sign, and an early home drought a bad one. All seven teams that opened 5-0 or better on the road in the previous 12 seasons finished with winning records, including the 73-9 Warriors of 2015-16 and the 64-win Cavaliers of 2024-25. Of the 10 teams that went winless at home through at least three home games in that span, nine finished below .500. The exception was the 2018-19 Rockets, who won 53.

What to watch

Three of the four winless home teams play at home in the next two nights. Sacramento hosts Orlando on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, Indiana hosts Washington and Chicago hosts San Antonio, which puts the Spurs’ 5-0 road record against the Bulls’ 0-3 at home. Boston and Oklahoma City, the two teams unbeaten at home, are both on the road Tuesday, at Philadelphia and Portland. Home and road records for every team are on the WhyNBA standings page.