Why do the Warriors have home court advantage over the Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals?
It’s a juicy final match-up that looked very unlikely not too long ago, but many are wondering why the series begins in the Golden State.
On Thursday night the 2022 NBA Finals will tip off in Game 1 of what could be a tantalising contest as the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors clash in San Francisco.
With Steph Curry doing his thing, and ably supported by the rest, The Dubs are 9-0 at home, the only team still undefeated in their own back yard. The Celtics, by handy contrast, have the best record on the road in this year’s postseason (7-2) and will be hoping that Jayson Tatum can cause a bit of a surprise in the opener.
Interestingly, the meeting of these two teams means it’s just the fifth time since 2007 that no conference No.1 seed has made it to the final game, and for a second consecutive year. The Warriors were third seed in the west, while the Celtics were second in the east, and that has some wondering why we’re heading to California first.
Why 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 will be 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.
How important is home court advantage?
To answer this question, I dug out my old calculator. 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%.
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.
Warriors-Celtics: there’s history
The franchises have met four times previously in the playoffs, the first three occurring in the Eastern Conference finals before the Warriors moved west from Philadelphia. The Celtics won all four matchups, including in 1960 and 1962 in the second and fourth seasons of their eight straight championships.
Boston also beat the Warriors in the 1964 NBA Finals, a five-game series in which Wilt Chamberlain outscored rival Bill Russell 146-56 and out-rebounded him 138-126 in defeat.
The Celtics have added six titles in the post-Russell era, including one - their most recent - in 2008 over the Los Angeles Lakers with Joe Lacob as one of their part-owners. The Massachusetts native became owner of the Warriors two years later and has since added three to his championship-ring collection, with Golden State claiming crowns in 2015, 2017 and 2018.