We’ve got some outstanding basketball duos to watch today. Tatum and Brown. Steph and Jimmy. And of course, on this happiest of Easter Sundays…

Today’s Lineup

🤔 The Clippers’ New Home Court Advantage

The Clippers finally moved out of their parents’ house and into their own home—the Intuit Dome—and after year one, it’s looking like a massive success. And it’s not just because their 44,000 square foot LED “Halo” scoreboard is best-in-class, or because Steve Ballmer insisted on more bathrooms than anyone knows what to do with.

According to the numbers, it may already have the best home court advantage in the NBA.

The main culprit? The Wall. When designing the Intuit Dome, Balmer and Co. insisted on installing an unusually steep section behind the away team’s bench with 51 rows of seats. In an era where die-hard fans are getting priced out of stadiums, the organization ensures this section is only made up of real Clipper fans paying reasonable prices—there’s even a section reserved for fans expected to stand throughout the game.

Best part? Season tickets here are sold at a relatively affordable price point. 💰

The concept for The Wall originated years ago, when representatives from German soccer club Dortmund met with the Clippers’ president and executives. The Clippers were intrigued by Dortmund’s Yellow Wall—a massive standing fan section that holds nearly 25,000 supporters.

But why do we say it’s resulting in a legit home court advantage? Let the numbers tell the story.

The Clippers’ opponent FT percentage was 74.8% this season, which ranks 2nd-best in the league. But that’s not all. When you segment the percentages by basket, visitors made just 73.4% of their foul shots shooting against The Wall, which would have ranked dead last in the NBA. It's substantially lower than the 76.1% teams make on the other end of the floor. 

According to a deep-dive from Sportico, The Wall’s percentage is 4.7% lower than the league average—that would be the second-largest deviation from a league average since 2000. 

Over the past 20 years, the data shows almost no correlation between how well away teams shoot free throws in a given arena and how they shoot at the same arena the following season. This indicates that home teams likely have little to no influence on opponents’ free throw shooting. The question is… will The Wall change this going forward? 🤔 

❤️ Russ Reps Son, Styles WNBA Draftee

Russell Westbrook came up big in Denver’s first playoff game, but we saw something on our TL equally as Enjoy-able.

Westbrook pulled up to a Lakers press conference three years ago when a reporter asked him about his unusual sweater. Russ instantly broke into a smile, because as it turned out, his son Noah had drawn his dad and him enjoying a nice day in the sun and transposed it onto a cashmere sweater. Props to Russ for repping his son’s thoughtfulness so proudly! ❤️

While we’re discussing Russ’ unique fashion, did you know he designed the draft-day outfit for an WNBA player last week?

That’s right. Westbrook styled Georgia Amoore for her entrance into professional basketball. She told the future HOFer she wanted to wear all black and a blazer, and as if he had just grabbed his 10th defensive rebound of the game, Russ took it and ran with it. 🏃‍♂️

Unfortunately for both of them, Trae Young and Trey Lyles got sent home during the Play-In Tournament this week. Even so, both hoopers had 🔥 on their feet for the first games of the postseason.

Ice Trae Young wore a players’ edition of the Jordan 39 (did you know there were this many Jordans now?). We love the “Strawberry Lemonade” colorway: 🍓

Lacing them up for some solid backup big minutes in SacTown, Trey Lyles wore a shoe nearly opposite from Trae’s in color and tone. The Kobe 4 “Gradient Away” is sleek and goes for an arm and a leg on StockX… 🤑 

Signing Off

That’s all for us today! Go watch the four AWESOME playoff games we’ve been blessed with—and Happy Easter! 🐰 

Conor Geelan