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The top four teams in the East and West have a home court advantage over their opponents. The team with the higher seed is going to have the home court advantage in the succeeding rounds. The No. 1 team in the regular season gets the home court advantage all throughout.
Coming off two straight seven-game series whereas the Warriors haven't gone to seven yet, the Celtics already have their work cut out for them. Jayson Tatum had over a point per game more on the road this year, but more notably, he shot almost 10 percent better from beyond the arc on the road. While that's more than likely natural variance, it'll be something to look out for as the series goes on. This season Lamb has attempted just two 3-pointers in the last 10 seconds of games that are close . Their magic number to earn home-court advantage in the first round is one . In order for the Celtics to get the third seed, Boston must win out and Philadelphia will have to finish 1-2 or worse.
The (In?)-significance of home court in the NBA Playoffs
In the playoffs, Golden State defeated the Clippers in six games in the first round, despite blowing leads at home in Games 2 and 5. Cousins tore his left quadriceps in Game 2, and was initially thought to be out for the remainder of the postseason. With the Splash Brothers—Warriors guards Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson—struggling with their shooting, Durant had been the team's best player in the playoffs, averaging a team-leading 35.4 points entering Game 5. However, Durant left the game late in the third quarter after suffering a strained right calf; he was later ruled out indefinitely. Led by Curry and Thompson, Golden State pulled out Game 5 without Durant, and won the series in six games. In the Western Conference Finals, Golden State swept the Portland Trail Blazers 4–0, with three of the wins including comebacks of 15 points or more.
Thompson left the game in the fourth quarter with a left hamstring injury after landing awkwardly on a three-point field goal attempt. Toronto scored 10 straight points to pull within two points at 106–104, but Iguodala cemented the win with a three-pointer with 5.9 seconds remaining in the game. During the off-season, Golden State acquired DeMarcus Cousins, who was recovering from a ruptured left Achilles. He gave the Warriors a true, top-flight center for the first time under head coach Steve Kerr. During an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in November 2018, Draymond Green cursed out teammate Kevin Durant over his upcoming free agency status after the season, and he was suspended for the much-publicized blowup.
Curry lights up Celtics, Warriors even Finals at 2-2
CBS Sports has it that the Toronto Raptors brutally exploited the break of bad luck on part of the Golden State Warriors in Game 2 that left them short of some of their best players. Klay Thompson could not bounce back from his bad landing last time, and was dressed in street clothes on the Warriors bench with Kevin Durant, easily the worst possible loss that their team could suffer at this critical juncture. That could explain Toronto’s victory with their first double-digit final-score lead in this series. Of the 19 Game 7s in Finals history, the home team came out on top 15 times (78.9%).
In the United States, the Finals was televised by ABC in English and ESPN Deportes in Spanish. Play-by-play commentator Mike Breen, and analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson called the series on ABC, while Álvaro Martín (play-by-play) and Carlos Morales were on ESPN Deportes. This was also Doris Burke's last year in the NBA Finals as sideline reporter on TV; a year later, she transitioned to calling the series as an analyst on the ESPN Radio. The game was not without controversy, however, when Warriors investor Mark Stevens pushed Kyle Lowry while attempting to dive for a loose ball, a gesture for which Stevens was banned from attending Warriors games in the future.
Western Conference Semifinals
On March 1, 2019, the Milwaukee Bucks became the first team to clinch a playoff spot. The Los Angeles Clippers completed the largest comeback in NBA playoff history, overcoming a 31-point deficit against the reigning champion Golden State Warriors in Game 2 of the Western Conference first round. It's February, and Bob McKillop is about to complete his 30th season as the basketball coach at Davidson College. I have come to speak with him because Curry has said McKillop is a reason he did play Division I basketball and a reason he has been able to revolutionize the sport. Eventually, as Leonard's star began to rise -- he was named California's Mr. Basketball after his senior season -- major conference schools began calling. Keep it here for all the reaction, analysis, news and more after a thrilling six-game series.
Game three became the second playoff game in NBA history to go into quadruple-overtime, joining a 1953 game between the Boston Celtics and Syracuse Nationals. Kawhi Leonard joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James as the only players to win Finals MVP with more than one team, and became the first Finals MVP winner from both conferences. The Celtics advanced 10 straight times, winning nine, including eight consecutive. Game 6 further exceeded these numbers with an average of 7.7 million. TSN publicized that a total of 15.9 million unique viewers watched some point of the telecast, and 9.99 million were watching during the final minute.
Golden State Warriors
Surely, all that experience would lead Golden State to a strong start against a franchise that had never been here before. These Raptors aren't content with finally getting to this point — this is a team that is seemingly ready to win it all. And if there was going to be an emotional letdown after their biggest win in team history — Game 6 last Saturday to get to this point — the Raptors didn't show it.
Aside from their blown lead after halftime, the Raptors came up with nothing on three straight possessions in the final four minutes of play despite having wide-open looks. A hybrid between a zone and a man-to-man defense, in which four players form a box and guard different zones. Two defenders stand near either low block, while two more stand higher up, near the elbows. The fifth defender guards the opposing team’s most dangerous scorer, while getting help from the other four defenders when that player enters their zone.
Portland, currently the fourth seed, trails third-place Houston by 1.5 games and leads fifth-place Utah by one game. The Warriors’ win over the Cavaliers means Golden State’s magic number is one. Golden State can secure the No. 1 seed throughout the West playoffs with another win or Denver loss.
As the crowd sang loudly, Mounties stood proudly near the Raptors logo at centre court. That still was not enough for Curry to carry his team against Toronto. Not when Kawhi Leonard’s 30 and Kyle Lowry’s 23 together trumped him. It does serve as a powerful reminder that Stephen Curry is an NBA great here and now, even if he follows LeBron James in achieving a high score in a Finals game where his team still lost. The injuries sustained by significant members of the Golden State Warriors roster meant that, according to NBC Sports, the team must rely on their last active ace, Stephen Curry. It would be difficult as he too was nursing a sprain in his taped hand.
TNT primarily aired games on Saturday through Wednesday, while ESPN on Friday and Saturday. For Thursday games, TNT had them in the first round and ESPN in the second round. ABC then aired selected first and second round games on Friday through Sunday . NBA TV also televised selected games in the first round on Tuesday through Thursday. Also in the first round, regional sports networks affiliated with the teams could also broadcast the games, except for weekend games televised on ABC. The Western Conference Finals were televised on ESPN, while TNT televised the Eastern Conference Finals.
The parade was attended by an estimated crowd of two million fans, making this the largest public gathering in one place for one event in Canadian history, peacetime or wartime. However, due to this overcrowding, the parade was delayed an additional three hours as numerous fans bypassed the barricades, blocking the parade route. In addition, excessive crowds delayed emergency services from attending to people in the crowd falling ill from heat exhaustion and dehydration, which resulted in the death of an infant. Later on, the parade was marred by shootings, which occurred during the victory speeches. The shootings wounded four people, though did not inflict life-threatening injuries, and caused a stampede.
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