Someone explain to me what it means to "steal homecourt"

[Thechosen1]

I know it sounds stupid, but I dont care, anyone can break that down and how it changes scheduling in the series?

[MeloMike]

Win one of the first two games on the road.

You then have a 1-1 series and 3 home games left out of 5, thus, you have home court advantage.

[Sampsonsimpson]

From my understanding if your playing a team with homecourt advantage in a series and you beat them at home those first two games, you stole homecourt because they already played at home now are heading to your home court. Hence they lost homecourt advantage but I really dont know, thats just my guess

[TonyD]

The team with HCA gets 4 homes games. If the visiting team wins the first game then it means they can now win the series if they just defend their own home court. However, the other team is now forced to win a game on the road. The actual scheduling does not change, juts the winning conditions of the series.

[jbryan1984]

What they said. I think it does change in the Finals though, I could be wrong but I think in the Finals that if the road team wins game 1 or 2, they get 3 straight games at home (if needed).

[MaxFly]

What they said. I think it does change in the Finals though, I could be wrong but I think in the Finals that if the road team wins game 1 or 2, they get 3 straight games at home (if needed).

The Finals schedule is 2-3-2 regardless of who wins those first 2 games. The format is different from the prior 3 rounds as a way of reducing travel since an Eastern Conference team is playing a Western conference team.