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The Celtics , Washington Bullets and Cavaliers are the only teams to ever win a Finals Game 7 on the road. This season, teams from the East saw action in 42 playoff games – but the “Road” team was able to “steal” precisely half of them. Overall, teams playing at home were (.551) during the 2019 post-season. In the 2018 NBA Playoffs, as Brad Stevens’s young pups were elevating all those pesky expectations that led to this season’s disappointment, Eastern Conference teams participated in 45 of the exactly 82 contests. Of those 45 games, the “Home” team emerged victorious 31 times, a near 70% rate of success.
This was Lillard's second series-winning 3-pointer; his first came against Houston in 2014. He is the only player besides Michael Jordan to hit two series-winning field goals. This was also the last Thunder game to feature both Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Without Thompson and Stephen Curry for most of the pandemic-shortened 2019–20 season, the Warriors finished with a conference-worst 15–50 record, and did not qualify for the Orlando bubble in the summer. In the 72-game 2020–21 season, they finished eighth in the conference with 39 wins and qualified for the play-in tournament, but lost to the Los Angeles Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies in the first and second phases, respectively.
The (In?)-significance of home court in the NBA Playoffs
When you’re playing at home, you play in front of thousands of adoring fans. You sleep on your own bed, and the familiarity game is in your favor. There is a reason why home fans are often referred to as the “sixth man.” These madmen exert a lot of influence in the game. The Celtics bucked home court advantage in the last series, and they'll look to do so again to secure their record-setting 18th title.
Portland clinched #3 seed over Houston based on 2–1 head-to-head record. Brooklyn clinched #6 seed over Orlando based on 2–1 head-to-head record. The Toronto Raptors advanced on to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, defeating the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals. All of the top seeds won the first round for the first time since 2008. In a big moment, with the Warriors needing a big play to get back into the game -- and the Finals -- with Drake in his face and the guy he'd called out in his sights, Draymond Green did not combust.
Curry lights up Celtics, Warriors even Finals at 2-2
CBS Sports has it that the Toronto Raptors brutally exploited the break of bad luck on part of the Golden State Warriors in Game 2 that left them short of some of their best players. Klay Thompson could not bounce back from his bad landing last time, and was dressed in street clothes on the Warriors bench with Kevin Durant, easily the worst possible loss that their team could suffer at this critical juncture. That could explain Toronto’s victory with their first double-digit final-score lead in this series. Of the 19 Game 7s in Finals history, the home team came out on top 15 times (78.9%).
Siakam, the NBA Most Improved Player that season, shot 6-for-6 in the third quarter to keep the Warriors at bay. Toronto maintained a double-digit lead for most of the fourth quarter, countering every rally by Golden State. Prior to the season, NBA GM’s voted for the Warriors as having the biggest home court advantage of any team in the league. According to NBC Sports, the Warriors received 50 percent of the votes, while the Jazz finished second at 27 percent. While Golden State won the voting, it was down 26 percent from the previous year’s numbers where the Warriors received 76 percent of the votes. Given the Warriors championship experience, it appeared during the regular season that Golden State did not place high importance on having home court in the NBA finals.
Western Conference Semifinals
The next determinant in case there is still a tie is the higher winning percentage when it comes to conference opponents. After that, there are still three tiebreakers, but since it rarely gets to that point, we’re going to leave it at the third tiebreaker. Golden State was outstanding in the friendly confines of the Chase Center this year, going in the regular season.
ABC had exclusive television rights to the 2019 NBA Finals, which was the 17th consecutive year for the network. Durant returned after missing the previous nine games with his right calf injury, and scored 11 points in the first quarter. However, he was lost for the game two minutes into the second quarter when he tried to drive by Ibaka and suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon, falling and grabbing his lower right calf.
Van Vleet finished with 22 points, including 12 in the final period, and made five of the team's 13 three-pointers. Curry had 21 points for Golden State, but he was hounded by the Raptors in the fourth quarter without Durant or Thompson available. Draymond Green had a triple-double with 11 points, 19 rebounds and 13 assists, but committed eight turnovers. Golden State made 20 three-pointers, the second most in NBA Finals history behind Cleveland's 24 against the Warriors in Game 4 in 2017. Cousins, who did not enter the game until Durant's injury, had 14 points and six rebounds for the Warriors, and Green added 10 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Leonard had 26 points for the Raptors, while Lowry added 18 and Gasol 17 to lead six Raptors in double figures.
Aside from their blown lead after halftime, the Raptors came up with nothing on three straight possessions in the final four minutes of play despite having wide-open looks. A hybrid between a zone and a man-to-man defense, in which four players form a box and guard different zones. Two defenders stand near either low block, while two more stand higher up, near the elbows. The fifth defender guards the opposing team’s most dangerous scorer, while getting help from the other four defenders when that player enters their zone.
Portland, currently the fourth seed, trails third-place Houston by 1.5 games and leads fifth-place Utah by one game. The Warriors’ win over the Cavaliers means Golden State’s magic number is one. Golden State can secure the No. 1 seed throughout the West playoffs with another win or Denver loss.
That means, whoever has a better head-to-head record gets the home court advantage. Now, what if two teams from the same conference have similar regular season records? Or what if the two teams in the NBA Finals do have identical records? That’s not a problem at all since the NBA already has a tiebreaker rule in place. The team with home court advantage has a record in the NBA Finals, although recent history is somewhat on the Celtics' side.
TNT primarily aired games on Saturday through Wednesday, while ESPN on Friday and Saturday. For Thursday games, TNT had them in the first round and ESPN in the second round. ABC then aired selected first and second round games on Friday through Sunday . NBA TV also televised selected games in the first round on Tuesday through Thursday. Also in the first round, regional sports networks affiliated with the teams could also broadcast the games, except for weekend games televised on ABC. The Western Conference Finals were televised on ESPN, while TNT televised the Eastern Conference Finals.
The NBA itself estimated 6.9 million viewers when accounting for the French-language feed on RDS and estimated viewership on out-of-market stations. Nurse was criticized for calling a timeout with Toronto up 103–97 after going on a 12–2 run; the Splash Brothers' three 3-pointers came after the break. Will the Golden State Warriors have home court advantage in the NBA finals? We break down the current NBA finals format and who has home court for the series. 5 takeaways from Warriors' series-tying win Stephen Curry captures the moment, Steve Kerr makes a crucial choice in the 4th and more thoughts as the Warriors retake homecourt advantage. Wiggins double-double powers Warriors to 3-2 lead Warriors All-Star Andrew Wiggins puts up 26 points and 13 rebounds as Golden State pushes Boston to the brink with a 4th-quarter flurry.
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