Being Home Free Not Always a Good Thing

This is why home-court advantage matters. It’s not always about comfort or crowd noise. Sometimes a game, a series or even a championship comes down to the sound or the silence of a whistle--and at that moment location can mean everything.

The site happened to be the eastern side of Staples Center on Sunday. One time down the court, the whistle blew and Derek Fisher got a trip to the free-throw line for the deciding points in the Lakers’ 96-95 victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

The next time play came to that end, the officials ruled that Shaquille O’Neal got his hand on Tim Duncan’s shot and nothing else. Duncan’s jumper fell well short and the Lakers had their 11th consecutive victory at Staples--and another day of contention for the best record in the league and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

The arena influences the referees in basketball more than any other sport. At least, that’s the perception.

“If you’re a team respected by the officials, home court makes a big difference,” Laker forward Robert Horry said. You won’t find one player who disagrees.

Maybe the Lakers don’t get those calls if 35,000 fans in the Alamodome are ready to scream their displeasure. Perhaps a call in a critical game at Arco Arena in Sacramento would go the other way. The NBA schedule gave the Lakers the benefit Sunday. Anything they get in the playoffs will have to be earned in these final three weeks of the regular season.

The Lakers didn’t need home court last year. They went 8-0 on the road in the postseason, including two victories in San Antonio to start the Western Conference finals. And the Lakers won’t be intimidated if they have to go on the road to begin a series this year. They already have won at Sacramento and Dallas, their two biggest rivals for the No. 1 seed in the West.

Right now Sacramento (53-19) leads the Lakers (52-21) by two games in the loss column. If the Lakers had lost Sunday they could have gone ahead and booked rooms at the Sacramento Hyatt--while looking over their shoulder at the Spurs. Now the Spurs (49-24) are a little too far back, while the Lakers still have a shot at catching Sacramento.

“I’d just like to have [home-court advantage] for the first round,” Laker forward Rick Fox said. “Then after that ... it doesn’t scare me to go on the road the first two games. It’s actually slightly fun.”

It’s not that the Lakers would be afraid of Sacramento. It’s just that Sacramento plays with so much more confidence at home--and the Kings are great front-runners.

As Fox said: “You’re always braver in your backyard, because you can always run in your house to your mom when you need her.”

Fox is big on this fear thing lately. He said Saturday that the Spurs were “still scared” of the Lakers, and he didn’t back off those comments after Sunday’s game.

“You know you look in somebody’s eyes and you can tell whether they believe or not?” Fox said. “I think a lot was still lingering from last year.”

Duncan’s response: “Good for him. Basketball is not a sport where you’re scared of anybody. I’m not afraid of anybody on the court. It’s great that they won two championships and all that great stuff, [but] why would you be afraid of somebody?”

There’s nothing fun and no empty rhetoric about having critical calls go against you in the playoffs. Ask Phil Jackson if he still thinks a foul should have been called on Chicago’s Scottie Pippen against Hubert Davis in Game 5 of a series against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden eight years ago.

That play was similar to Sunday’s no-call. Contact after the play on the ball. Replays indicated that O’Neal brushed Duncan’s arm after he blocked the shot with his fingertips. Only this time, no whistle.

“That’s a call I can’t make,” Duncan said.

“You’ll have to make your own call,” Spur Coach Gregg Popovich said. “The call wasn’t made, the game’s over. But you can make your own conclusions.”

Here are mine: the players should decide the game, not the referees, and this wasn’t a blatant enough foul to demand a whistle.

As Kobe Bryant said, “If that’s a foul, I get fouled on every shot.”

Here’s O’Neal’s view: “That was all ball. Even if I didn’t get all ball, they owe me that call. What about all the times when I get hit on the arms? I didn’t complain, not once today, on this beautiful Easter.”

Would it be a foul if the game had been played in San Antonio?

“Probably,” O’Neal said. “It’s kind of unfair sometimes, but it doesn’t matter.... That was good defense at the end. If they don’t like it, too bad.”

The other play the Spurs found difficult to swallow came after Fisher rebounded a Duncan miss with 15.9 seconds left. Fisher fell, Malik Rose was called for a foul and with the Spurs in the penalty, Fisher went to the free-throw line.

Even Jackson thought it was curious.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a finish where you get free throws off a rebound foul,” Jackson said. “But that was a big benefit to us.”

Said Rose: “I didn’t think I got him. But then when I saw the replay I was really sure I didn’t get him.

“It probably is a home call. I don’t know.”

The Lakers had their share of complaints--did Duncan foul Bryant on a reverse layup in the final minute?--but they couldn’t complain too much. They shot nine free throws to San Antonio’s two in the fourth quarter, and both of San Antonio’s free throws came from technical fouls.

“A lot of disputed calls down the stretch,” Jackson said. “But we ended up coming away with this one.”

It’s good to be home for the holidays.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com.