Immediate Effects of On-The-Job Training and Its Intensity

Abstract

National Basketball Association home teams produce more defense and more wins the more consecutive games they play at home, suggesting home games serve as on-the-job training for future games during the same homestand. Home teams produce less defense and fewer wins the more days off during a homestand, suggesting training intensity increases productivity. A possible explanation is that teams develop communication skills specific to their home environments and/or adapt to referee bias toward home teams as homestands progress. Homestand training significantly weakens as the season progresses. Visiting teams show similar, but weaker, training effects with respect to roadtrip length and productivity.