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Some people don’t believe in making a game a must unless it’s mathematically about elimination. I’m not one of those people. After losing Game 1 at home to the Celtics, the Warriors need to win Game 2.
If they don’t, history says this thing is over. No team has ever lost the first two games of the Finals at home and come back to win the series. Only five times has a team gone down 0-2 and come back to win, and on all five occasions it was the road team in the early hole, giving them at least the advantage of returning home for Game 3.
Milwaukee did that last year, losing the first two finals games in Phoenix before winning the next four. The Warriors know all too well that the Cavaliers lost 2-0 in Oakland in 2016 and eventually won the series in seven. But again, these teams lost the first two down the road.
If Golden State loses a second straight loss at home on Sunday, they’ll have to crawl back into the series in Boston.
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For the Celtics, the series has already taken a massive statistical swing in their favor: teams that win Game 1 of the Finals have won the series over 70 percent of the time, whether that win came at home or away.
It is not common for the street team to win Game 1 of the Finals. This has only happened six times since 1990 and only twice this century. Good news for the Warriors, two of those six home teams that lost Game 1 returned to win the series (1993 Bulls and 1995 Rockets).
So losing Game 1 didn’t completely doom the Warriors, although it certainly turned the odds against them. But a loss in Game 2 would do it. Unless the Warriors plan something no team in NBA history has done before.