After an exciting season of basketball, the stage is set for the 2022 NBA Finals. The Eastern Conference Champ Boston Celtics face off off against the Western Conference’s Golden State Warriors. This figures to be a close matchup between two teams with a rich history of winning NBA titles.

Entering the Finals, the Celtics also have GOAT NBA franchise bragging rights at play. They are attempting to go one better than the Los Angeles Lakers by winning their 18th NBA title in the league’s 76-year existence. For the Warriors, they will be playing for their fifth NBA Championship with three of them coming in the last seven years. During that stretch, the Warriors appeared in five straight NBA Finals. They likely only missed another last year due to injury issues.

Before Game 1, the Warriors are betting favorites at to win the series +163 with the Celtics sitting at +230. For the first game itself, the Warriors are favored by 3.5 points with the over/under set at 211.5. Sports bettors will also be looking at proposition bets of which there are no shortage. Some major online sportsbooks have as many as 100+ options for Game 1 and the series combined.

Boston Celtics Path To Finals

The Celtics entered the NBA playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s #2 seed with a record of 52-31. They sailed through the first round by quickly dispatching the Brooklyn Nets with a series record of 4-0. After this demolition, things got a lot tougher. First they had to battle against the defending NBA Champ Milwaukee Bucks. It went all the way to Game 7 where the Celtics eventually took down the champs with a clear victory.

Ii didn’t get any easier in the Eastern Finals where they faced the top-seeded Miami Heat. Again it took all seven games for the Celtics to prevail. There’s no doubt they are a battle-hardened squad at his crucial stage of the season.

Golden State Warriors Path To Finals

While the Celtics were battling in the East, the Warriors set sail through the Western Conference playoffs. The team seemingly avoided breaking a sweat as they easily defeated the #6 seeded Denver Nuggets (4-1) in the first round. They subsequently cruised past the #2 seeded Memphis Grizzlies in the Conference semis 4-2, and finally moved quickly past the upstart and #4 seeded Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals.

As dominant as the Warriors looked, some handicappers are quick to point out the team’s good fortune through the last two rounds. In the semis, they were battling the Grizzlies tooth-and-nail until Memphis superstar Ja Morant went down with a series-ending injury in Game 3. From that point on, the Warriors never looked pressed.

Against the Mavericks, the Warriors had the good fortune of avoiding the Phoenix Suns, the defending Western Conference Champs for 2020-2021. The Mavs shocked the best team in the NBA in an exciting 7-game series that saw the Mavs blowout the Suns in Game 7 by 123-90 after allowing only 27 points in the entire first half.

Finals Matchup

During the 2021-20223 season, the Celtics and Warriors met on two occasions with both teams claiming a victory on the road. It’s noteworthy that the Celtics claimed victory 110-88 at a time (March) when the Warriors seemed lost. During that month, the Warriors had a poor record of 5-11. Fortunately, April saw the Warriors get back on track when they recorded a record of 9-1 heading into the playoffs.

Prediction: The Warriors are looking like the Warriors of 2015-2018 when they won three of four titles. With guards Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry firing on all cylinders, they will be tough to beat. The Celtics will be looking to counter with the high-scoring duo of Jayson Tatum (26.9 PPG) and Jaylen Brown (23.6 PPG). Assuming both duos negate each other and it gets down to the benches, the Warriors would have a huge advantage. Take the Warriors to win the series 4-2.