SAN FRANCISCO — From the memorable “We Believe” playoff run in 2007 to the early days of this current Golden State dynasty, the ear-shattering environment at old Oracle Arena provided a major boost to the Warriors.
While the fancy new digs across the bay in San Francisco might not match the noise level at the arena in Oakland nicknamed “Roaracle,” Chase Center is really starting to feel like home for the Warriors in its third season.
“Every single night, I get chills when I walk into the arena,” Warriors owner Joe Lacob said. “I literally get chills. I love it. I love basketball. I’ve loved it all my life. For over 50 years, I’ve been going to games. I’ve been to every arena in the world. To me, there is no better arena in the world than this Chase Center. It just needs the experiences like this one to kind of give it that history which Oracle had. … We love this building, our players love this building, our partners love this building. And it’s showing up pretty, pretty well.”
The Warriors have won all nine games this postseason at Chase Center, including clinching victories in each round over Denver, Memphis and Dallas. It’s their second-longest home winning streak in a single postseason, behind their 10-0 mark in 2017, and just the fifth time in NBA history that a team has gone 9-0 or better leading into the Finals.
Golden State has outscored the opposition by 14.6 points per game at home, the best in the league this postseason, as the loud crowd and comfortable environment has proved beneficial.
“Being able to start at home is huge, especially in the playoffs, even in the finals,” guard Jordan Poole said. “We have our home crowd, our home routine, the same thing we do practice wise. Just continue to try to take care of business at home, as we’ve done all playoffs.”
It took time for Chase Center to establish itself after the Warriors moved there following the 2018-19 season. With some of the longtime fans from Oakland priced out of more expensive new arena in place of newer fans without the same lifelong attachment to the franchise, the environment struggled to match the old one across the bay.
Other circumstances didn’t help the cause either. Golden State had the worst record in the NBA that first season, as stars Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry missed most of it.
The team fared better last season but played most of it in an empty arena because of the COVID-19 pandemic before having small crowds by the end of the season.
But the arena has been full this season. Early in this playoff run, Curry said the Warriors were still “trying to find (Chase Center’s) identity.”
“After two years of not having fans (always), you can really tell the difference now when you have a full crowd and it’s going crazy,” big man Kevon Looney said. “I’m glad that the Chase Center is rocking like this and the fans have been really giving us this extra boost.”
Playing on the road is far from a daunting task for the Celtics, who are coming off a Game 7 win in the Eastern Conference finals at Miami after staving off elimination in the second round with a Game 6 win at Milwaukee.
In all, Boston has won seven of nine games on the road during these playoffs, beating the Nets and Bucks twice each and the Heat three times.
They are the fourth team to win seven games before the finals at an opponent’s arena, joining the 2017 Cavaliers, who lost to the Warriors in the finals, and the 1981 and ’95 Rockets.
Only Houston in 1995 won the NBA title, taking the first two games in Orlando on the way to a sweep.
GARY PAYTON II (elbow), Andre Iguodala (neck) and Otto Porter Jr. (foot) are questionable for Game 1, Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said.
All three participated in a full contact practice Wednesday afternoon at Chase Center.
Porter and Iguodala were seen doing work on court during the last 30 minutes of practice while Payton sat on the sidelines talking with Kerr, General Manager Bob Myers and the team’s director of sports medicine and performance Dr. Rick Celebrini.
“We’ll see how they turn up tomorrow, but it’s a good sign all three had contact today,” Kerr said.
Porter missed the last two games of the Western Conference finals against the Mavericks because of a foot injury suffered in the first half of Game 3. Iguodala hasn’t played since the first-round series against the Nuggets because of a disc injury in his neck.
Payton has extended his range of motion in his left (shooting) elbow, which he broke after a nasty incident in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals May 3 when Dillon Brooks of the Grizzlies took a full swing at Payton as he soared through the air on a layup attempt, sending him to the floor.
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