How many NBA Finals have Warriors, Celtics played in? How many titles have they won?

The 2022 NBA Finals certainly have the feel of a classic series - and one that has the media’s pulses racing, which is good news for a league that closes out its 75th anniversary celebrations with this battle for the championship ring. The Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics are two of the three remaining franchises from the league’s first ever season, 1946-47, when it was still called the BAA (Basketball Association of America). In 1949, the BAA’s merger with the NBL (National Basketball League) led to the current name: NBA (National Basketball Association).

In that maiden season, there were 11 franchises. By 1951, only the three that are still alive had survived: the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics, who both also remain in their original home city, and the Philadelphia Warriors, who moved to San Francisco in 1962, played in Oakland between 1971 and 2019, and then returned to San Francisco. Now, the Warriors and the Celtics face each other in the Finals.

2022 Finals contested by two of NBA’s most decorated teams

Two illustrious franchises, two dynasties that link past to present. Between 1957 and 1969, the Celtics won eight straight NBA titles, and 11 out of a possible 13. A unique winning run that made Boston the first great team in the history of the NBA. The Warriors are in their sixth Finals in eight years. If they win, it will be their fourth championship in that period (they lost in 2016 to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and in 2019 to the Toronto Raptors). Only the Lakers have been in more Finals than this year’s two contenders: a total of 32, divided between the franchise’s stints in Minneapolis and Los Angeles. The Celtics are next, with 22 Finals appearances, followed by the Warriors, with 12. Behind them are the Sixers (nine) and the Knicks (eight).

When it comes to NBA titles won, the Lakers and the Celtics are level at the top of the all-time charts with 17, following Los Angeles’ triumph in the Florida bubble in 2020. In third place, there’s another tie that could be broken during the 2022 Finals: the Chicago Bulls and the Warriors have six each. They are followed by the San Antonio Spurs, who have five. While the Lakers’ 17 titles have come from 32 Finals appearances, the Celtics boast a 17-4 record in the championship-deciding series - an exceptional success rate. Meanwhile, the Warriors’ six titles have been won across 11 Finals attempts.

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Celtics in Finals for only third time since 1980s

The Celtics are back in the Finals after a 12-year absence. Since 1986, Boston have only won one title, in 2008, against a Lakers team that would then defeat them in the championship showdown in 2010, in an excellent series settled in Game 7. Before 2008, the Celtics hadn’t made it to the Finals since 1987, when they also lost to the Lakers. From the late 80s onwards, 2008 and 2010 were the Celtics’ lot, until now.

The Warriors lifted their first title in that inaugural season, in the 1947 Finals, when they were still based in Philadelphia. Their next triumph arrived in 1956, also on the east coast. Once in Oakland, the Warriors secured the Larry O’Brien Trophy for a third time in 1975, before the current dynasty’s three titles in 2015, 2017 and 2018. So far, the franchise has a 6-5 record in Finals. In the modern era, the Warriors have lost the 2016 and 2019 Finals previously mentioned. Earlier, they went down to the Baltimore Bullets in 1948; to the 2022 opponents the Celtics in 1964, in the first clash for the ring between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain; and in 1967 to the Sixers, who secured their second title, and their first since moving to Philadelphia, the city the Warriors had left five years earlier.