NBA Finals 2023 is played in Best of 7 format scheduled from June 1 to June 18. Team with a better regular season score will have home court advantage.
The formats are heavily influenced by Home Court Advantage (HCA), which guarantees a more significant number of winning chances and percentages. The team which exhibits a better record and is seeded higher during the regular season takes HCA.
Playing on home ground in such an important event as the NBA finals is a big deal for a team to be the next annual NBA champion. In the 76 years of NBA history, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics have become champions 17 times.
Likewise, the Lakers have appeared 32 times in the NBA Finals, the most for a team, while the Celtics have won the title eight times in a row from 1959 to 1966.
With such head-to-head competition between the playoff NBA teams, any stipulation in the league makes a big deal for them to win the ring.
As the 2023 NBA Finals are closing in, the current champions Warriors are trying their best to defend their title in a desperate attempt against the surging Lakers led by LeBron.
NBA Finals 2023 Format Explained
NBA Finals 2023 will follow the 2-2-1-1-1 format as the playoffs per tradition. In this format, a team who entered the finals will host the first two games, while the other teams will host the next two games.
Meanwhile, the remaining three are played at each team’s home arena alternately, starting with the team with the better regular season record.
Hence, the NBA Finals 2-2-1-1-1 format is also known as NBA Finals Best of Seven. However, the league previously followed the NBA Finals Best of 5 formats.
In the previous format, the NBA Finals teams followed the 2-3-2 arrangement. According to the system, the first two and last two games of the finals were at the arena of the team with home-court advantage.
A team earned the home advantage by having a better record during the regular season. The Best of 5 formats was in use from 1985 to 2013, helping the teams avoid going through much cross-country travel.
However, the 2-2-1-1-1 format made its comeback in 2014 after the Association’s competition committee voted to restore the Best of 7 formats at the 2013 Competition Committee.
Bleacher Report confirmed the news in September 2013, pointing out that the 2-2-1-1-1 pattern is a beneficial decision for the NBA from a business standpoint. As the Best of 7 setups requires more traveling and two more games to be played, it is quite a significant opportunity for teams, TV channels, and arenas to reel in more revenue.
As NBA enjoys an average of 1.6 million viewers each season on television alone, the number shoots up to double figures during memorable matches and the finals.
What Determines Home Court Advantage in NBA Finals?
Home Court Advantage in NBA Finals or any other sport is defined as the benefit a team attains over the visiting team by playing in their home arena.
This kind of benefit is largely the result of psychological confidence as the attendees and supporters of a game are from the same area. Hence, the other team, or the visiting team, will likely have fewer fans and supporters to cheer them up.
Besides the fans, there have been records of referees, the mental and physiological standard advantages of playing in familiar places and situations, along with being in recognizable time zones or climates, also determine a home-court benefit.
However, these factors do not guarantee a 100 percent win for the home-court team. But home-court advantage is one of the most meaningful provisions in the NBA.
Bleacher Report in 2013 confirmed that NBA teams have won 60 percent of games in the regular season when played on home ground. Meanwhile, home teams won 80 percent of the conference semi-finals, while 50 percent won the conference finals.
Likewise, the chances of home teams winning the NBA Finals shot up to 80 percent, marking the advantage quite significant for NBA teams and players.
Regarding the 2022 NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors played the final game against the Boston Celtics with a home-court advantage. The Warriors ultimately won the game with a 4-2 lead and became the champions.
However, Game 2 and Game 4 were tiebreakers at 1-1 and 2-2- respectively, while the Celtics had been leading the series until then. The Warriors eventually made a comeback in Game 5 with a lead of 3-2.
Thus, being in their home court of Chase Center, San Francisco, made them confident. The Warriors point guard Stephen Curry was awarded the Finals MVP.
Therefore, NBA teams have always tried to be at the top of their NBA rankings and become their conference champions to have the upper hand in terms of HCA.
With overflowing examples each year, teams and players in the league are heartily welcomed by their fans and supporters when they reach their home ground.
Regarding their home arena, many state teams of different sports leagues, including NFL, NHL and MLB happen to share most of the grounds as a sign of respect. However, not the same case follows in each team.
For example, the 76ers’ home arena, Wells Fargo Center, is also home to the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League.
NBA Championship 2023 Date and Odds
The 2023 NBA Championship will commence on June 1 and end on June 18, 2023. As the 2023 NBA playoffs began on April 15, 2023, and will continue till May, the quest to find the future NBA champions is still going on.
Celtics and Jayson Tatum now lead the chart with the best odds to lift the trophy as the Bucks were eliminated by Number 8 seed Miami Heat in the first round.
Defending champions Golden State Warriors have won four championships in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022. Meanwhile, they have made six NBA Finals appearances from 2015 to 2022.
While they bagged 4-3 wins against the Sacramento Kings in April to advance to the Western Conference semifinals, they have already lost three games coming in May to the Lakers with in form Anthony Davis.
However, the Warriors remain one of the top favorite teams of audiences who might win the 2023 NBA championship, per Forbes.
ESPN reported that New York Knicks had received the odds of +5000 as of May 9 to become the next NBA champion which looks slim at this point in front of Jimmy G Buckets.
Miami Heat is close behind with the odds of +2500, followed by the Philadelphia 76ers, the Warriors, the Phoenix Suns, the Denver Nuggets, the Lakers.
Likewise, the defending Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics also enjoys the winning odds for this year’s conference championship. On the other hand, the Suns have the highest bids to win the Western Conference championship.