Finals bound: Celtics take flight for first championship series in more than a decade

BOSTON — The Celtics have made it clear throughout the playoffs they don’t plan to rest on their laurels – not that they’ve had time to, anyway.

Two days after beating the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the team boarded a plane to California, where they’ll go up against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday.

The Celtics are in The Finals for the first time since 2010, when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games. They last won the championship in 2008 with the “Big 3″ – Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen – leading the charge.

Photos of Celtics players getting on the plane were shared to the team’s social media pages. Forward Grant Williams used the opportunity to send a message, wearing a shirt with “It’s Time To Bring Brittney Home” written in large letters on the back, a reference to WNBA star Brittney Griner.

Griner has been detained in Russia on drug charges since mid-February, when authorities say she was found at the airport with vape cartridges containing hashish oil.

Bring Brittney home.

👉 https://t.co/NilQSPpRHs pic.twitter.com/oITIkoXlxb
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 31, 2022

pic.twitter.com/VcxZShSpM6
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 31, 2022

Boston will go up against the Golden State Warriors in a best-of-seven series starting June 2.

Games 1 and 2 will be held at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The series then returns to Boston for Games 3 and 4 on Wednesday, June 8, and Friday, June 10.

Fans hoping to score last-minute tickets should expect to shell out some serious cash. The cheapest ticket for Game 1 of The Finals is listed at $599, and prices go as high as $6,900. That’s not even taking into account flying to San Francisco – about $700 round trip – or staying overnight, which costs $200 and up.

According to ticketing technology company Logitix, the average price of a ticket sold on the secondary market for Warriors home games this series is $1,759 per ticket. It’s only $57 less once the series moves to Boston – those tickets average $1,702, Logitix says.

When the Celtics were last in the finals in 2010, the average ticket for a home game was $580, according to a Bleacher Report article from that year.