NBA Finals 2022: Warriors face mandatory game 2 against the Celtics … unless they plan to make history

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Some people do not believe in declaring a game a mandatory win unless elimination is mathematically established. I’m not one of those people. After losing 1 game to the Celtics at home, the Warriors have to win game 2.

If they don’t, the story suggests that this thing is over. No team has ever lost the first two games of the finals at home and has not returned to win the series. Only five times has the team lost 2-0 and come back to win, and in all five cases it was the team on the road in the early hole, which at least gave them the advantage of returning home for Game 3.

Milwaukee did so last year, missing the first two finals in Phoenix before sweeping the next four. The Warriors know all too well about the 2016 Cavaliers, who lost 2-0 to Auckland and then eventually won the series in seven. But again, these teams lost the first two on the road.

If Golden State loses second at home on Sunday, they will have to crawl back into the series in Boston.

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For the Celtics, the series has already made a statistically huge swing in their favor: teams that win match 1 of the finals continue to win the series over 70 percent of the time, whether that victory comes at home or on the road.

It is not uncommon for a team to win match 1 of the finals. This has happened only six times since 1990 and only twice this century. Good news for the Warriors, three of those six home teams who lost Game 1 at home are back to win the series.

• 1991 Bulls: Lost Game 1 at home to the Lakers, winning series in five
• 2001 Lakers: Lost Game 1 at home by the Sixers, winning series in five
• 2013 Heat: Lost Match 1 at home by the Spurs, winning series in seven

So the loss of Game 1, while certainly turning the odds against them, does not completely doom the Warriors. But a loss from Game 2 would be. Unless the Warriors plan to do something no team in NBA history has done.