Road to the NBA Finals 2022
Golden State Warriors
Golden State Warriors Road to the Finals:
Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics Road to the Finals:
Boston Celtics vs Golden Sate Warriors NBA Finals Preview
The time of the first game of the 2022 NBA Finals is almost here. The Warriors and the Celtics will determine which team will become the new NBA champion – will the Warriors win their fourth title in eight years or will the Celtics win title number 18 for the franchise to break the tie with the Lakers as the team with the most NBA titles in history?
The Warriors enter these NBA Finals as the favorites, which is understandable. First of all, the experience is on their side since this will be their sixth appearance in the Finals in the last eight years, all with the same core that includes coach Steve Kerr and their trio of stars Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. So, this team clearly knows how to win. In addition to this, the Warriors will have the home-court advantage in the series since they had a better record in the regular season than the Celtics. Lastly, the Warriors played fewer games and had a longer time to rest ahead of the NBA Finals, which could be an important factor as well.
On the other hand, the Celtics finally broke the barrier of getting to the Eastern Conference Finals and losing, which happened to them three times in the previous five seasons. Boston Celtics are still a young team, with their main stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown both in their mid-twenties. The presence of Al Horford brought them some necessary experience, which was very valuable in these playoffs in which the Celtics had to play seven games in two series.
In any case, we expect very exciting NBA Finals, with these two teams being pretty evenly matched in our opinion.
How the NBA Finals Work
The NBA Finals have been played in the best-of-seven format basically since the inception of the league, so let's take a quick look at what that means:
NBA Finals Format
The best-of-seven format means that the highest number of games that can be played in a series is seven. So, the first team to get to four wins is deemed the winner of the series.
In the case of NBA Finals, the champions of both conferences, i.e. Eastern Conference champions and Western Conference champions, play against each other and the first team to win four games is the new NBA champion.
The team that has the better overall record during the regular NBA season has the home-court advantage in the NBA Finals, which means that the better-seeded team gets to host Game 7 if necessary. They also get to open the series at home, hosting the first two games of the NBA Finals.
NBA Finals MVP Award
Before the 2021-2022 season, the only individual award in the NBA playoffs was the NBA Finals MVP. However, that was changed this season, so now we will also have the MVP awards for Eastern Conference Finals (Larry Bird Trophy) and the Western Conference Finals (Magic Johnson Trophy).
In any case, the NBA Finals MVP is awarded to the best player in the NBA Finals, usually selected from the winning team. The trophy is named after Bill Russell, the man who won eleven NBA titles as a player, which is the most in the history of the league. The reigning NBA Finals MVP is Giannis Antetokounmpo, while Michael Jordan holds the record for most NBA Final MVPs with six wins.
NBA Finals Schedule and TV Rights
As was the case for the last two decades, ABC will have the exclusive right to broadcast and cover the NBA Finals. The NBA Finals will start on June 2nd and last until June 19th if the series go to seven games. Here is a full scheduled for the 2022 NBA Finals:
- June 2: NBA Finals 2022 Game 1
- June 5: NBA Finals 2022 Game 2
- June 8: NBA Finals 2022 Game 3
- June 10: NBA Finals 2022 Game 4
- June 13: NBA Finals 2022 Game 5 (If necessary)
- June 16: NBA Finals 2022 Game 6 (If necessary)
- June 19: NBA Finals 2022 Game 7 (If necessary)
