The culmination of the season is here. Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals will see the Celtics and Mavericks facing off on Thursday night.
After falling short against Golden State in the 2022 NBA Finals, Boston is poised to reclaim its glory. Riding high on a strong season, this Boston team is more dominant now than it was two years ago.
They clinched the top spot in the league and swept through the Eastern Conference during the playoffs. Boston will welcome Dallas to TD Garden for the opening game of this year’s finals on Thursday.
The Boston Celtics have earned home-court advantage in the 4 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, thanks to their superior regular season performance.
With a 64-18 win-loss record, Boston stands ahead of the 50-32 record of the Mavericks. It’s the first time since 2019 that the team with the best regular season record gets to hold home advantage in the NBA Finals.
But have you ever pondered about how the NBA decides the starting venue for the Finals? Let’s take a closer look at the workings of the home court in the NBA Finals, and its significance in crowning the champion.
How Is Home Court Decided in NBA Finals?
Rather than awarding home-court advantage based on playoff seeding as in the initial three playoff rounds, the Finals grant this advantage to the team with the better regular season performance.
For this year, both the advantage in seeding and record goes to the Celtics. After an impressive 64-18 regular season, they secured the No. 1 slot in the East.
Most often, the higher-seeded team also holds the superior track record. Only twice since 2008 has a higher-seed team begun the Finals on the road.
In 2019, even though the Golden State Warriors were the No. 1 seed in the West following a 57-25 season, they played the opening game of the Finals in Toronto against the 58-24 Raptors, who had secured the No.2 slot in the East.
Then in 2023, despite the Celtics’ No.2 seed and a 51-31 season, home-court advantage went to the No. 3 seeded Warriors, who had a 53-29 season.
Despite these deviations in awarding home-court advantage in the Finals, the series maintains a consistent layout through all playoff rounds. The team playing host to Game 1 also hosts Games 2, 5, and 7, while the team starting on the road takes home turf for Games 3, 4, and 6.
How Significant is Home-Court Advantage in the NBA Finals?
The home-court advantage in the NBA Finals is certainly beneficial. Leaving aside the unusual circumstances of the 2020 Orlando bubble, of the 76 teams that held home-court advantage in the Finals, 55 went on to secure the championship.
The significance of home-court advantage is even more pronounced at the beginning of the Finals. Out of the 76 teams that started the series at home, 58 clinched victory in Game 1, which equates to a .763 win percentage.
As for the all-important Game 7 in the NBA Finals, the chances of the home team emerging victorious are very similar to those for Game 1.
Historically, out of 19 game 7s in Finals history, 15 were won by the home team, resulting in a .789 win percentage. The only teams to defy the odds and win a Finals Game 7 on the road are the Celtics (1969 and 1974), the Washington Bullets (1978), and the Cavaliers (2016).
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