The level of difficulty of winning on the road, especially in the NBA playoffs, is supposed to go up several notches. But that hasn’t been true for the Boston Celtics.
The Celtics continued to be road warriors to start the NBA Finals, stealing home-court advantage away from the Golden State Warriors with a 120-108 come-from-behind victory in Game 1 on Thursday night at Chase Center. With the win, the Celtics improved to 8-2 on the road during the playoffs.
Nobody had beaten the Warriors on their home floor this postseason until the Celtics made a 15-point, second-half deficit disappear and throttled Golden State in the fourth quarter by outscoring it, 40-16.
Following the contest, Derrick White explained the Celtics’ mentality to overcome adversity on the road, and what has led to the abundant amount of success in hostile environments.
“The road is the time where it’s just us,” Derrick White said, per MassLive’s Souichi Terada. “We come together as a group. We know it’s just us versus them in their arena. We enjoy playing on the road. It’s a tough place to play and a big Game 1. We just got to be a little greedy and try to get this Game 2.”
Boston’s big win to open the NBA Finals isn’t the only signature road victory it has put together this postseason. Behind an incredible 46-point performance from Jayson Tatum, the Celtics staved off elimination on the road in Game 6 of their second-round series against the reigning NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks.
The Celtics also showed they could get the job done on the road in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat, surviving pressure-packed moments to advance to their first NBA Finals since 2010.
While Boston has performed extremely well on the road, it’s puzzling how it has played in front of its home crowd at TD Garden in the playoffs with the Celtics only 5-4 on the parquet floor.
Good thing for the Celtics is they have another road game coming up with Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Warriors scheduled for Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
