Chart of the Day

Here’s a fascinating histogram charting home team margin of victory in NBA games from 1997 to 2009. You see the predictable skew toward the home team, and also a big spike around zero:

What explains this? A star PhD student at Northwestern, Toomas Hinnosaar, and I have been thinking about this. Our focus in on the dynamics and strategy at the end of the game.

Of course another possibility would be that officiating is biased somehow toward the tie outcome.