When a team leads three games to none in a best-of-seven series, it’s time to start looking forward to the next round or to a championship show.
Most of the time.
In the history of sports, few teams that went 3-0 in series lead managed to lose three straight games before recovering. Some of them lost another game – and the series – too.
That’s history facing the Miami Heat, who won the first three games of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals series against the Boston Celtics, then lost the next three, including Game Six at home on Saturday night.
Game 7 Monday night in Boston, the Heat 48 minutes away from historic infamy. No NBA team has ever blown a 3-0 series lead dating back to 1947, when the NBA was called the American Basketball Association and had teams like the Cleveland Rebels and St. Louis Cardinals. This year, in the Western Conference Finals, the Denver Nuggets took a 3-0 series lead against the Los Angeles Lakers, then finished them off in a four-game sweep.
A collapse occurred after leading 3-0 in other leagues. Let’s relive some of those dark moments (for one team in that series anyway).
baseball
The most famous 3-0 comeback in sports certainly came in 2004 when the Boston Red Sox stunned their hated rivals, the Yankees, and made Major League Baseball history.
Snatched from the jaws of defeat, the American League Series victory came in defiance of the legendary Bambino Curse that supposedly drove the Red Sox to perpetual defeat after they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.
“Obviously, that’s overwhelming for us,” said Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, a sentiment the Heat may soon feel.
The only other time a major league team fought back after trailing 3-0, he didn’t finish the job. The Tampa Bay Rays raced to a 3-0 win in the 2020 ALCS series, played at a neutral site in San Diego due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Houston Astros held out for the next three games, but Tampa Bay prevailed 4-2 in the decider before losing the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said of the aftermath of Game 6: “I don’t know if I went to bed. It was tough, no doubt. A lot of anxiety.”
No team has ever managed a 3-0 lead in the World Series, but in the Japan Series, the Nishitetsu Lions came back from 3-0 down to win in 1958 over the Yomiuri Giants and the Giants pulled off the same feat against the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 1989.
hockey
The NHL has treated fans to the most meltdowns in four games, and one of those came in the Stanley Cup Final.
In 1942, the Detroit Red Wings won the first three games, but the Toronto Maple Leafs came back with four straight games. The Cup turned into a best-of-seven format in 1939 and this was the first series to go the distance.
“By Jiminy” was the post-game reaction from Leafs great Syl Apps.
A four-game comeback in previous innings was also achieved by the Islanders over the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1975, the Philadelphia Flyers over the Boston Bruins in 2010, and the Los Angeles Kings over the San Jose Sharks in 2014.
Basketball
While no team in the NBA has — yet — lost a series that tops 3-0, few, like this year’s Heat, have lost three straight to reach 3-3.
It only happened once in the Finals, in 1951. The Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings through Cincinnati, Kansas City, MO, and Omaha) took a 3-0 lead over the Knicks, who had three wins. The final game came down to the last seconds before the Royals’ Bob Davies Seal it with two free punches.
It is the one and only Royals/Kings series tournament, in any city. The Knicks had to wait until 1970 for the first time.
A three-game collapse followed by a Game 7 recovery in earlier rounds was also achieved by the 1994 Utah Jazz against the Denver Nuggets and the 2003 Dallas Mavericks against the Portland Trail Blazers.
So the complete meltdown never happened in the NBA but in all of basketball?
How could you forget the classic Beermen-Aces series?
In the 2016 Philippine Cup Final, the Alaska Aces looked poised to clinch the title after three straight wins. (Their name came from their sponsor, Alaskan Milk, not from their home base.)
But it was wrong to count the reigning champion San Miguel Beermen, who won four in a row to do what no other NBA team has ever done.
The Celtics hope to take on the Beermen on Monday night.