How many times has the home team lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals?
The Boston Celtics arrived in the Golden State to face the Warriors knowing that history was not on their side, but recent form helped.
Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals tipped off on Thursday evening as the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors clashed in San Francisco. With Steph Curry starring, The Dubs were 9-0 at home, the only team undefeated in their own back yard. The Celtics, in an interesting contrast, had the best record on the road in this year’s postseason (7-2) and were hoping that Jayson Tatum could keep his magic going to turn the series in their favour early.
Is home court advantage usually important?
It would appear that starting the Finals series at home does indeed help. Just shy of 72% of teams in front of their adoring fans first go on to win the title (that’s 53 out of 74 - and obviously leaving out the year of the Orlando bubble). Actual Game 1 home wins reads 77% so the odds were stacked against the visiting Celtics.
Obviously, the first game can be key to the momentum building but having this advantage also applies to Game 7, if we indeed reach that point. There have been 19 Finals series that have gone the distance and on 15 occasions (79%) the home team won that decisive clash.
It’s worth noting, given where we are, that the Celtics is one of the few teams to have won on the road in Game 7 of the Finals, doing so twice, in 1969 and 1974. The others are the Washington Bullets (as they were known then) in 1978 against the Seattle SuperSonics, and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 against, ahem, the Warriors.
Why did the Warriors have home court advantage?
We saw in the early stages of the NBA Playoffs that seeding matters when it comes to home-court advantage, the higher seed playing initial host. In the Finals, however, it’s the best regular season performance that matters, often this matches with the seeding.
So, with the Warriors having finished 53-29 compared to the Celtics 51-31, Game 1 was at the Chase Centre in the Golden State, as will Game 2, 5 and 7, consistent with other rounds. Games 3, 4 and 6 will be in Boston.
Celtics win Game 1 on the road
As it turned out, the Celtics went on to win by a score of 120-105, with the teams combining for the most made three-pointers ever in a Finals game. Cats, pigeons...