Sure, it takes four victories to win a seven-game series, but NBA history demonstrates the winner of Game 1 is highly likely to win the series.

The victor in Game 1 won 45 of the 61 NBA Finals contested before this one.

So this is a key moment for the Lakers, in Boston tonight. Especially when we consider that home teams won Game 1 45 times in Finals history.

If the Lakers can buck that trend and steal this game, if Kobe Bryant can get his teammates involved early but eventually score 30, and Lamar Odom shows up and the trio of Derek Fisher-Vladimir Radmanovic-Sasha Vujacic make at least 40 percent of their three-point shots … they can win.

And if they win, the series could shift in their favor. Dramatically. I wouldn’t quite say you could discount everything I wrote in the post below, but the Lakers have a real shot, if they win tonight.

If they don’t … well, in all seven-game series in NBA history, the winner of Game 1 won 297 series and lost only 80.

A bad stat to contemplate, if you’re the Game 1 loser. Particularly if you’re playing against the team with the best regular-season record and home-court advantage — as the Lakers are.