For the Cardinal, coming home this season has always meant one thing: catching up. Homestands have been opportunities to make up for inevitable losses on the road, as Stanford tried to keep the .500 mark at least in sight. Success in Maples has allowed the Card to hang in there at 13-14 (7-8 in conference play). And just in the nick of time, Landry Fields & Co. discovered that they could indeed take their show on the road (to Oregon) to make the game of catch-up a little easier.

After sweeping the Oregon schools in its final road trip of the year, the “home stretch” of co

nference play can be read literally for the Cardinal, as Stanford returns to welcome Arizona State, Arizona and California before the postseason.

But maintaining its home court advantage will be no easy feat for the Card, as it has lost to all three of its remaining opponents on their own turfs — by an average of 17 points.

First up are the Sun Devils, who are second only to the Golden Bears in the Pac-10 with a 9-5 conference record (19-8 overall). Arizona State bested the Cardinal by 18 points on Jan. 30 in Tempe, thanks mostly to junior guard Ty Abbott, who lit Stanford up for 29 points of his own — including shooting seven-of-nine from long range.

As a result, Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins says that the team will be trying to limit the production of Abbott, who averages 11.9 points per game, and the rest of the Sun Devil backcourt.

“Abbott is playing very well,” Dawkins said. “Of course, he had a great game against us there, and [senior guard Eric] Glasser is a big-time leader at the point. He’s been around the block . . . and he’s leading his team well.”

Glasser leads not only the team, but also the conference, in assists, dishing out more than five assists per game, thereby giving him the Pac-10’s second-best assist/turnover ratio. He also ranks third among free throw shooters with 88 percent.

Meanwhile, Abbott leads a few things himself, and although his seven threes in January were far and away from his 2.62 per game average, his percentage (44.2) lands him ahead of even Stanford’s own Jeremy Green (40.3), and helps Arizona State lead the conference as a team, averaging 8.48 long balls per outing.

But Glasser and Abbott share scoring responsibility with the rest of the team, as six Sun Devils average more than seven points per game, including junior Rihards Kuksiks (11.9) and senior Eric Boateng (8.2) — with whom Dawkins is familiar from his days playing at Duke before transferring to ASU.

In the season’s second meeting with Arizona State, Dawkins says familiarity with the whole roster will make Stanford better prepared for the Sun Devils’ style of play.

“[ASU] really gets after you defensively,” Dawkins said. “They run a motion offense to keep the floor spread, and they have some terrific shooters that really play off of what they do offensively.”

“We have to defend better this time,” he continued. “A large part of them getting out and getting off to a big lead early was the fact that we turned the ball over, which led to some easy baskets for them in transition. We have to find their shooters in the half court . . . and try to stay with them because when you’re making threes to the level that they’re capable . . . that rings up points pretty quickly.”

With a game plan solidly in place, Dawkins hopes his team will “compliment [its] defense with offense.”

This burden will likely fall, as usual, on the Pac-10’s leading scorer, Fields (with 22.2 ppg), who is coming off what Dawkins called his best game of the season against Oregon State. Green (17.5 ppg) will probably remain the other top scorer, looking to top Abbott in the long-range shootout — and Green is confident he can.

When asked who could beat him in a game of HORSE, Green replied simply, “No one.” And he didn’t mean just on the Stanford team.

“No one in the world,” he clarified with a smile, adding that Abbott’s sniper range puts no pressure on his own game.

If Green can hit two more from behind the arc, he’ll surpass Casey Jacobsen’s Stanford three-point record of 84 in a season, and another bucket from Fields will make him just the fifth Cardinal player to score 600 career points.

Stanford will also look for contributions that don’t come in the form of records from senior guard Drew Shiller and sophomore Jack Trotter, who have chipped in especially well recently, and sophomore guard Jarrett Mann, who will also likely be given the charge of defending Abbott.

With March approaching, the Sun Devils need an incredibly strong finish to the season if they want it to last a little longer. If the stars align — meaning either Arizona State wins the Pac-10 Tournament over Cal and/or hell freezes over — ASU needs nothing but wins from here on out to be the second Pac-10 team to get a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Bottom line: Arizona State will arrive at Maples ready to play, and Dawkins says Stanford is up to the challenge.

“We have an opportunity to do something great,” Dawkins said. “We have three home games — we have to take them one at a time — against some very good teams. Arizona, Arizona State and Cal are all playing some really good basketball, and for us the important thing is that we understand the value of each game. We have to go out there, prepared to win each time against the opponent that we’re going to face, and while we’re out there, we stay focused for the 40 minutes.”

The first 40 start at 7 p.m. tonight at Maples Pavilion.