Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks begins Thursday night at TD Garden in Boston.
With a league-best 64-18 record during the regular season, the Celtics will have home-field advantage in the Finals and will play Games 1 and 2 in front of their home crowd. But how much will this matter in the grand scheme of things?
To tell the truth, not as much as you might think.
.@PabloPierce34 He is leading his Celtics to win the NBA Finals? pic.twitter.com/91TNjK9bOa
— INDISPUTED (@undisputed) June 3, 2024
Entering this postseason, Boston had a 12-13 home record at the Garden in the 2021-23 playoffs. However, they have bounced back nicely this year, going 6-2 in front of their home fans with their only losses coming against the Heat and the Cavaliers.
The Celtics were also historically good at home during the 2023-24 regular season, with a 37-4 record, the most home wins by an NBA team in a season since the Warriors and Spurs won 39 and 40 games, respectively, in 2015-16. .
The more I think about it, there’s no stopping Jayson Tatum in this series.
— CelticsUnite (@CelticsUnite18) May 31, 2024
According to Sports Handle, between 2013 and 2023 (and excluding 2020), home teams in the NBA Finals won their games 54.4% of the time, the lowest percentage of any round of the playoffs. During that same span, home teams won 59.8% of their first-round games, 63.6% of their conference semifinals, and 61.1% of their conference finals.
The Mavericks, meanwhile, are 5-3 at home this postseason compared to 7-2 on the road. In fact, Dallas has averaged more points (108.3) and is shooting better from the field (47.5%) away from the American Airlines Center.
Since the NBA-ABA merger, only eight playoff teams have won eight or more postseason games on the road. The record for most road wins in a playoff is nine, set by the Rockets on their way to the 1995 NBA title.
In fact, the Celtics went 8-4 on the road in the 2022 postseason before losing to the Warriors in that year’s Finals.
The Dallas Mavericks are headed to the NBA Finals.
“The difference of a year”
A video essay about his incredible career. pic.twitter.com/jTEEflkSCO
— Esfandiar Baraheni (@JustEsBaraheni) May 31, 2024
Unfortunately for the Mavericks, NBA teams fourth or lower in the playoffs have only won the Finals twice. The Rockets did so as the sixth seed in the West in 1995, while the 1969 Celtics won as the fourth seed, the same seed as this year’s Dallas team.
This is the Mavericks’ first appearance in the NBA Finals since 2011, when they defeated the Miami Heat in six games as a lower seed. After losing two of the first three games of the series, Dallas bounced back to win Game 4 at home before defeating the Heat on the road in Game 5. The Mavericks closed things out with a 105-95 victory in Game 6 to capture the franchise’s only title. NBA title.
13 YEARS AGO TODAY…
Dirk Nowitzki scored the winning layup to cap a 22-5 Mavs run in Game 2 of the 2011 NBA Finals, evening the series at 1-1! pic.twitter.com/WxtrY6X6s2
– NBA History (@NBAHistory) June 2, 2024
This is Boston’s second Finals appearance in the last three years, although the Celtics last won a title in 2008 behind Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.
