Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
The New Jersey Nets are not a very good team on their home court, but instead of blaming themselves for their abysmal record and .389 shooting percentage at Newark's Prudential Center this season, they've decided to blame the building.
Seriously. It's too cold in there, you know?
They're shooting a league-low 39% at home - while the opposition is shooting a robust 49% - providing an opportunity for Deron Williams and Anthony Morrow to express their displeasure last week about the Rock's design, its temperature and its comfort level: "It was made for hockey, not basketball," Morrow said.
...
Williams, who said last week, "I don't like this arena one bit," later clarified that he wasn't making excuses for his poor shooting, just expressing his opinion. Morrow cited the arena's chilly temperature and its different design.
Oddly enough, this isn't an issue at Madison Square Garden, TD Garden, Wells Fargo Center, Verizon Center, Air Canada Centre, Time Warner Cable Arena, American Airlines Center, Toyota Center, AT&T Center, Pepsi Center, Rose Garden, United Center, Quicken Loans Arena or Staples Center -- all NBA arenas that also host hockey.
In fact, in many of those arenas, basketball games the night prior or even the same day as hockey games can cause absolutely awful ice conditions. MSG is probably the worst culprit, but Verizon Center in Washington D.C. is also known for terrible ice and every multi-purpose building on the continent experiences these problems to a certain extent.
The awkwardness of multi-purpose facilities is at its most extreme in San Antonio. AT&T Center, home to the NBA's Spurs and AHL's Rampage, isn't big enough to fit a hockey rink comfortably, so for Rampage games, they curtain off half the seating bowl. You can barely see the ice from there anyway, so there's no point in selling the tickets. Capacity shrinks from 18,000-plus for basketball to about 7,000 for hockey as a result.
And you're complaining about it being a little cold? The slightly chilly indoor temperatures aren't worthy of complaint in at least 14 other cities in North America, nor is it an excuse for the Seton Hall Pirates, who've put up a 10-1 record at their home court this season. They also play in the Arctic environment known as Prudential Center. Weird.
h/t Tom Ziller
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