Just how good is a 39 point win?

As you know, the Celtics beat the snot out of the the Lakers tonight by 39 points (131-92). The first (obvious) question is whether it is an NBA Finals record margin of victory. It isn't. The record is 42 points in 1998 when Chicago embarrassed Utah 96-54. Boston did lead by 43 for a brief moment late in the game, but couldn't quite hold it.

The 39 points is, however, the largest margin for the NBA Finals final game. Shown below are the biggest blowouts in the last game of the season. As you can see, Boston is no stranger to ending the season on the highest of high notes.

Year	Teams	Margin
2008	Boston over Los Angeles	39
1965	Boston over Los Angeles	33
1949	Minneapolis over Washington	21
1960	Boston over St. Louis	19
1986	Boston over Houston	17
1952	Minneapolis over New York	17
1980	Los Angeles over Philadelphia	16
1968	Boston over Los Angeles	15
1974	Boston over Milwaukee	15
1950	Minneapolis over Syracuse	15

The second question is much more subtle. What are the emotions that allow for a blow-out of this nature? How does the home court factor in? What affect does coming off a loss have? I decided to go searching for nearly identical situations in previous NBA Finals.

The requirements are that a team jumps out to a 3-1 lead, loses game five on the road and comes home for game six. This is what happened with Boston in 2008 and what has happened to seven other teams in NBA history. As you can see, the home team has gone 8-0 and, with only one exception, none of the game sixes were close.

Year	Teams	Margin
2008	Boston over Los Angeles	39
1986	Boston over Houston	17
1948	Baltimore over Philadelphia	15
1950	Minnesota over Syracuse	15
1987	Los Angeles over Boston	13
1996	Chicago over Seattle	12
1982	Los Angeles over Philadelphia	12
2000	Los Angeles over Indiana	5