3 things that will help the Boston Celtics win the NBA finals
No. 2: The Boston Celtics do not have homecourt, but they are Road Warriors
The Boston Celtics are a league best 7-2 on the road these playoffs, winning both games in Brooklyn vs the Nets, two games in Milwaukee vs the Bucks, and three games in Miami vs the Heat all on route to NBA finals appearance.
This current iteration of green and white is battle tested in the harshest of NBA environments. For some reason or another, the Celts are better away from TD Garden. In a series that could go seven games against the Golden State Warriors, four of those plausible seven contests are at Chase Center in San Francisco, it plays right in the Green teams hands.
Based on recent history with this current group there is no crowd that they cannot and will not silence. It is imperative that the Beantown boys get at minimum of one of the first two games at Golden State. A chance to steal homecourt like they did vs Miami time and time again.
On March 16th, on the road these tough minded C’s beat Golden State convincingly 110-88. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart combined for 72 points. Curry did leave the game early due to an ankle injury but was struggling in the 14 minutes played prior to the exit.
You cannot put a great amount of stock into a road game in the regular season, but winning these types of matchups in front of sold out crowds in the playoffs is definitely something to hang your hat on coming into this series.
In a war, I am going with a team that is more battle tested like the Celtics. The Warriors have faced little to no adversity in their playoff run.
In round one, they drew a Denver Nuggets team whose second best player behind Nikola Jokic was probably Will Barton. Duirng round two, the Warriors faced off against the Memphis team that would lose Ja Morant half way through the series and not have Dillon Brooks for a game and a half due to suspension. In the second round, they avoided a deeper and much more balanced Phoenix Suns team.
In comparison, the Dallas Mavericks were too much of a one man team as anybody not named Luka was seemingly neutralized. Theyforced Doncic to play defense and his defensive skills mirror a 2014 version of James Harden.
Boston has no clear weak point in their rotation defensively to exploit and the physicality will be at a whole other level that GSW is not prepared to face. Easy roads to the finals are not always beneficial.