Now that the NBA has scheduled Game 1 of its finals for 7 July, the trickeries are up.
Beyond teams making risky chess moves or dodging first-round playoffs in the season, the real action comes in now that the Finals are starting. Bettors, therefore, need to consider things like team records and home advantage in predicting who gets the championship this time around.
Having a home-court advantage is important, especially for NBA finals. Let’s do a quick breakdown.
When you look at NBA’s history, you’ll see that champions have been made out of home teams. In 71 seasons altogether, teams with home advantage emerged winners 50 different times. These teams sure have a better shot at winning in NBA finals.
In terms of numbers, teams with the home-court advantage are superior. They get to play before their fans, who turn out en masse, making the atmosphere friendly and easing out whatever pressure the players may feel, especially when the pressure is loudest.
In five years, home teams have won as high as 57 percent of games in the NBA’s regular seasons.
Although the winning rate reduced slightly during the 2020-21 season, thanks to limited operations of arenas holding fewer fans, home teams still won 54 percent of the games.
Over the years, home teams have been more successful at final games, with a record of 61 percent wins. And that number takes a boost when home teams play in Game 1 and Game 7.
Out of the games played in the past 71 years, home teams won Game 1 of the NBA Finals 53 times.
The influx of fans on the very first day of the NBA finals doesn’t give room for road teams to beat the opposing sides who play at their home.
Another tough game is Game 7, which is even harder to win for any road team. In the NBA Finals, home teams have triumphed 15 times; that’s 79 percent of the entire games.
Three road team wins happened between 1960 and 1970 when the 1969 Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 1974 Celtics beat the Milwaukee Bucks, and 1978 Washington Bullets beat the Seattle SuperSonics.
There was also a time between 1985 and 2013 when the 2-3-2 format was used to limit cross-country traveling. This format, which had home teams playing three consecutive away games, gave them less result. They were only able to win 66 percent in the NBA Finals instead of the previous 71 percent.
But since reverting to the 2-2-1-1-1 format in 2014, the home advantage has made teams dominate the NBA finals, winning 6-1.
Consistently, home teams have dominated Game 1 and Game 7, only allowing road teams to snatch a win at Game 2 and Game 5.
Now that the 2-2-1-1-1 format is in use and NBA arenas have resumed total capacity, there’s a need to consider the massive importance of home advantage in the NBA finals. That’s because the championship may already have been decided.
You can check this and more at the Betway NBA finals odds.
