It took 82 games to decide home-court advantage throughout the NBA Playoffs, but after a week of basketball all of that could be thrown out the window.

Of the eight playoff series in the first round, the only team to maintain its home court is the defending champion Miami Heat, which only had to contend with a limping Al Jefferson after he injured his plantar fascia in the opening minutes of the first game.

Out of the seven series in which the higher seed has lost home court advantage, two teams lost both games at home.

The Chicago Bulls, exceeding all expectations by grabbing the fourth seed after guard Derrick Rose went down for the second-straight season and forward Luol Deng was traded away to the Cleveland Cavaliers, have seemingly come down to earth and lost both home games to start off the series. The young Washington Wizards team on the other hand seems to be peaking at just the right time, led by their explosive backcourt duo of guards John Wall and Bradley Beal.

Now the Bulls are down 3-1 going back home, which unfortunately for them guarantees nothing.

The Houston Rockets are dealing with a much different set of expectations, but they are struggling just the same.

Guard James Harden is shooting an abysmal 27-for-82 for the Rockets, a 33 percent that is well below his season average of 46 percent from the field.

What is even more concerning is that he's not getting to the free throw line, where he thrived during the season.

The Portland Trail Blazers' forward LaMarcus Aldridge is making life especially difficult for the Rockets, breaking team records and putting up numbers that put him into an elite class of playoff performers.

Aldridge is averaging 37 points and 12 rebounds per game, all the while shooting 53 percent over the first three games and a quiet 29 points in the Blazers' overtime win in Game 4.

Continuing with the head-scratching trend, the Blazers went home after winning two games on the road and proceeded to lose the game in overtime, making the series 2-1, but responded with a win in game 4 for a 3-1 series lead.

The grander picture looming over the struggles of these higher seeds is the job security that seems to be slipping away from coaches like Kevin McHale of Houston, Frank Vogel of Indiana and Scott Brooks of Oklahoma City.

Amid the Indiana Pacers' collapse, rumors started to swirl that Vogel was in danger of losing his job if he couldn't get his team out of the first round. Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard jokingly tweeted on the matter, assuring fans that Vogel's job was safe.

Brooks and McHale have not been so lucky as to avoid controversy. Both Brooks and McHale have been criticized for their respective team's lack of imagination on the offensive side of the ball, but their star players are not helping matters.

Both Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant and guard Russell Westbrook have been in a rut on offense, shooting 40 percent and 44 percent for the series, respectively. Harden has struggled from the field for a Rockets team that finds itself down 2-1 in the series.

As the teams struggle to find any continuity, their coaches take the brunt of the blame.

As the playoffs progress, only time will tell if this trend continues. There's evidence that these series might even out eventually, as the Pacers, Thunder and Clippers have all regained home-court advantage.

Then again, predicting the outcomes of these series based on home-court advantage would be a foolish thing to do.
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