The Los Angeles Lakers will again watch the NBA Finals from in front of the TV this year. What’s more, this year’s championship will be decided between two of L.A.’s biggest rivals: the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors.
After a two-year absence from the NBA playoffs, the Warriors made a spectacular comeback, losing just four games in three series on the way to the Finals. That included near-total domination over the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals, who had sent home the Phoenix Suns in the previous round — the team with the best 2021-22 regular-season record.
Meanwhile, the Celtics went through two seven-game battles against the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat after pulling off the only sweep of the postseason against the Brooklyn Nets in the first round.
Now that the 2021 Finals are set, we asked who the Lakers Nation faithful will be rooting for in the title-deciding showdown — and the results we received met the expectations:
We think we know the answer to this, but just want to find out for sure…
Lakers fans, who are you rooting for in the NBA Finals?
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) May 31, 2022
Due to geographic proximity and the entailing animosity between the cities of L.A. and San Francisco, the Lakers and Warriors fanbases naturally dislike each other. But the rivalry with Golden State has been nowhere near as fierce as the one with the Celtics, the Purple and Gold’s archenemy since the beginning of the NBA.
Besides, Boston’s win would again make the C’s the most decorated franchise in the league’s history, jumping ahead of the Lakers with 18 championships.
Celtics-Warriors 2022 NBA Finals schedule
The 2022 NBA Finals begin on Thursday, June 2, with Game 1 taking place at Chase Center in San Francisco. The Warriors will again host the Celtics three days later, before the series moves to Boston for Game 3 and Game 4 on June 10 and June 13, respectively.
If necessary, Game 5 will take place on June 13 in California and Game 6 three days later in Boston. Should the series come down to Game 7, the new champion will be crowned on June 19 at Chase Center.
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