Has there ever been a 3-1 comeback in the finals?
NBA teams have overcome 3–1 deficits 13 times, only one of which occurred in the NBA Finals. The NBA is the only major North American sport with seven-game playoff series where no team has overcome a 3–0 deficit. The Celtics won two games on the road during the comeback, and also won the NBA Finals.
Of the previous 47 teams to find themselves down 3-1 in a best-of-seven World Series, just six have rallied to win. That figure includes four of the 21 teams that were forced to win the final two games of the series on the road under the current 2-3-2 format.
The only instance in the MLB to date was by the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 American League Championship Series. The only instance in a championship finals series was by the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1942 Stanley Cup Finals. The NBA is the only league in which this has never happened, to date.
NBA history has seen 11 teams turn a 3-0 lead into a 4-2 series loss. Those teams, in chronological order, are: The 2022 Toronto Raptors, who lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round.
Michael Jordan famously went 6-0 in the Finals. Less famously so, he went 0-6 in playoff games vs. Boston. Win or lose, he was always A BEAST.
NBA teams have overcome 3–1 deficits 13 times, only one of which occurred in the NBA Finals. The NBA is the only major North American sport with seven-game playoff series where no team has overcome a 3–0 deficit.
In the history of the NBA, only 13 teams have overcome a 3-1 playoff series deficit and gone on to win Game 7. It's an impressive achievement when one considers that each series winner had to win three consecutive elimination games. To complete a 3-1 comeback, teams must win at least one game on the road.
Since their debut, the Diamondbacks have won two Wild Card Series, five NL West division titles, two NL pennants, and the 2001 World Series. They later became the fastest expansion franchise in baseball history to win a World Series.
The Yankees have won three World Series in a row (1998-2000). They've won four World Series in a row (1936-39). And they've won five World Series in a row -- the longest championship streak in MLB history.
Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen are among the players who never lost in the NBA Finals.
Who went 8 and 0 in the finals?
Below, we present a gallery of all the players who never lost in the NBA Finals, led by John Havlicek, KC Jones and Tom Sanders, who went 8-0 in the league's championship series. (Note: This gallery only counts players who saw at least one minute of playing time in the Finals.)
In 42 playoff series - not including the NBA Finals - LeBron James has never trailed 3-0. NBA Finals, yes. But during the conference playoffs, never.
How many times has Michael Jordan been swept in the NBA Playoffs? Jordan was swept out of the playoffs twice in his career, but it comes with a caveat. Both sweeps came in the first round in best-of-5s.
Including this postseason, there have been 130 occasions in which a team won the first three games of a best-of-seven. Only three of those series went to a seventh game. Here's a closer look at each series. Steve Nash and Dirk Nowtzki were pushed to a Game 7 in 2003 after blowing a 3-0 lead.
Several NBA teams have come close to sweeping the playoffs, but no team has stayed undefeated throughout the entire league postseason series.
Most of these teams above suffered their only regular-season loss early in the season and, other than the 2007 Patriots (started regular season and playoffs 18–0), only the 1962 Packers (10–0), 1985 Bears (12–0), 2011 Packers (13–0), and 2015 Panthers (14–0) were on track for a perfect season when they lost.
In 1985, to ease the amount of cross-country travel, it was changed to a 2–3–2 format, in which the first two and last two games of the series were played at the arena of the team who earned home-court advantage by having the better record during the regular season. In 2014, the 2–2–1–1–1 format was restored.
He led the only 3-1 comeback in NBA Finals history in 2016, when his Cleveland Cavaliers upset the Golden State Warriors to win his third championship.
13 teams have come back from down 3-1 in NBA history, the first coming in 1968 and the most recent in 2020 when the Nuggets did it in two consecutive series. That's less than a . 05% chance. Not that every situation is created equal, but it's as rare as it gets.
Has anyone swept the NBA playoffs?
Has any NBA team been able to sweep the whole playoffs? While no team has been able to win every single game in postseason competition, there are some squads that managed to drop only one playoff game.
In NBA Finals history, teams that have fallen into a 3-1 series hole are 1-35 all-time. The Cavaliers remain the only team to recover from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals when they bested the Warriors in 2016.
Golden State is 1-14 all time in series after trailing 3-1. Their lone comeback was in the 2016 Western Conference finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder. They squandered their own 3-1 advantage in the next round against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. "We made history before.
