NBA

NBA Finals: How many Game 1 winners in NBA Finals went on to win title?

Game 1 of the NBA Finals is right around the corner and both the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks will be looking to draw first blood at TD Garden.

David Butler IIUSA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con

After a week long break from NBA basketball, the Finals are set to start from Boston, Massachusetts on Thursday night. The Celtics will play host to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 as both teams look to return to championship glory for the first time in over a decade.

Boston start Finals at the Garden

Boston earned the right to host the NBA Finals after finishing the regular season with the best record in the East. Joe Mazzulla led his revamped team back to the Finals after going 64-18 in the regular season, and then easing past their competition in the Eastern Conference. They beat the Miami Heat 4-1, and then the Cleveland Cavaliers 4-1 before sweeping past the Indiana Pacers in four games.

In each and everyone of those series, Boston won Game 1 of the series as the home team. They will have a chance to do that on Thursday night in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Mavs haven’t had such an easy road in the playoffs. They lost their first two Game 1′s against the Los Angeles Clippers and then against the Oklahoma City Thunder, before taking care of each of those teams in six games.

The Western Conference Finals was, on paper, their easiest of the playoff series they have played during their run to the Finals. They won both Game 1 and 2 on the road before ended the series in Minnesota in Game 5. Now they will look to go into Boston and steal the series opener from TD Garden.

Game 1 a key to title

Obviously winning Game 1 is important. You take the series lead. You set the tone. Most importantly, you take one step closer to the closing out the series, and in this case, winning the NBA title. Statistically, Game 1 has proved incredibly important in how the series plays out. In the 77 NBA Finals that have been played, 70.1% of the champions have won the series opener. While it’s not automatic, there have been 54 winners of Game 1 that have gone on to win the NBA Finals.

The Celtics having home court certainly tips the scales in their favor for Game 1, and the series. Boston is a 6.5 point favorite to win the opener and their odds are -225 to win the series. If the Celtics win Game 1 at home, their historical percentage of winning the Finals raises to 78%. If the Mavs can pull off a win on the road in Game 1, history would suggest they have a 44.4% chance of winning the NBA Finals.

The last team to win Game 1 on the road and lose the series was the Boston Celtics just a couple years ago when they beat the Golden State Warriors in the series opener from California only to lose four of their next five games. They were the 19th team to win Game 1 of the Finals on the road, and of those 19, 9 have gone on to win the NBA Finals.

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