History says Game 1 blowout doesn’t doom Mavericks

Thirty-nine years ago, Boston also won the first game of the 1985 Finals handily, taking a 14-point first-quarter lead on the way to a 148-114 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Thursday, the Celtics led by a Finals-record 17 points in the first quarter, though they ultimately won 107-89.

In 1985, the Lakers won Game 2 in Boston, then won again in Boston in Game 6 to take the series, 4-2. Granted, that team had six Hall of Famers, including Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And 54 of the teams who took Game 1 of the Finals went on to win (70 percent) compared to 23 losers who still won it all.

Even among Finals blowouts, of which Game 1 wasn’t even one of the 50 biggest, six of the 12 teams on the winning side went on to lose the series. Besides the 1985 Celtics, the 2013 San Antonio Spurs beat the Miami Heat by 36 points in Game 3. The 2016 Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers by 33 points, the same margin as the Indiana Pacers beat the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000.

The Celtics had a 33-point loss to the Lakers on their way to the 1984 title, while the Lakers dropped a game by 33 to the Sixers in 1982, and still won it all.

The Celtics looked unstoppable in Game 1, and with Luka Doncic banged up, they’re obviously the favorite. But in the Finals, especially with extra rest to shake off a bad defeat, blowouts don’t guarantee anything.