Has any NBA team come back from 0-3 deficit?
Here is all you need to know about if an NBA team has come back from a 0-3 deficit.
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As the NBA playoffs have kicked off, each series has been cruising ahead. From teams competing head to head in a heated series to teams having a perfect record so far into the postseason, the playoff season is finally back. Fans get to see comebacks from a serious deficit or sometimes a downfall after having a healthy lead. This leaves everyone to wonder if any team has ever made a comeback from the worst position, being down 0-3 in the postseason.
To put it simply the answer is no. But there have been teams who have made a considerable comeback after being in such a situation. Coming back from a 0-3 deficit is not easy and statistically, impossible.
Once the opponent has such a lead, it’d only take one wrong approach to a game to lose it all. Hence, the probability becomes almost zero. But there were teams who took the right approach but couldn’t hold for long.
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An NBA record that’s yet to be made
There have been only 3 NBA teams that have made a huge comeback in the playoffs. Though these did not result in a win, they fought till the end and had their names written in NBA history. While some dates go way back, the game records still show how competitively the teams fought. The first team to ever make a great recovery from a 0-3 deficit was the New York Knicks in the 1951 NBA Finals.
The Rochester Royals faced the in a best-of-seven series after winning the East against the Syracuse Nationals. The Royals had taken a 3-0 lead, winning the first three games by a well enough margin. Though the Knicks weren’t done yet, as the next three games of the series were neck to neck. New York managed to edge out in all those games and the stage for Game 7 was set. Like any other of the previous games, the Finale was nail-biting. Though in the end, the Royals took the game by just 4 points, 79-75, making the Knicks the closest ever to winning a series after going down 0-3.
The next team that would make such a comeback was much later, in 1994. The Denver Nuggets faced the Utah Jazz Conference Semi-Finals. Every game of this series went down the wire. After taking a 3-0 lead, the Jazz fell one point short in Game 4, 82-83. The Nuggets would then fight in Game 5, taking the heat to double overtime and making the best of it. Game 6 was another one of close games after which the Jazz had enough. Utah won the Final game by 10, 91-81, advancing to the West Finals. The Nuggets had indeed fought till the last second of every game to force a Game 7 in that series.
The last comeback from a 3-0 deficit that resulted in a loss was in 2003 when the sixth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers faced the third-seeded, Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs. Mavericks made the series look easy for them, going up 3-0. What followed was a 19-point loss to the Blazers in Game 4. Portland would go on to win Game 5 as well followed by a 23-point Game 6 victory. At this point, the series was very much in the favor of the Blazers. But Game 7 was to be played in Dallas. The Blazers did all they could, though in the end fell just short with the final score being, 107-95.
These were the three teams that had made an exceptional comeback but couldn’t win it all in the end. Out of 147 times a team has led the series, no team has ever been able to make a comeback against such a deficit. It doesn’t seem that this record will ever exist. But in the end, there’s always a possibility. Do you think a team will ever make such a comeback? Let us know in the comments.
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Gerard Crispin
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