To count them, we rebuilt all 648 best-of-seven series in NBA playoff history game by game, 3,665 games from the 1947 semifinal between the Chicago Stags and the Washington Capitols to the 2026 Finals. From 1984 on, the results come from NBA.com's official game logs; for the 155 earlier series, from the game-by-game pages Wikipedia keeps for each postseason, such as the 1970 playoffs, checked against the series score it gives after every game.
NBA series comeback odds from 0-1, 0-2, 1-3 and 0-3
Losing Game 1 is a setback, not a verdict: teams down 0-1 have won 161 of 648 series, 25 percent. Losing the first two is much worse, 29 comebacks in 367 series, 8 percent, and a 1-3 deficit is worse still at 5 percent. Tied series turn on the next game: the team that wins Game 3 at 1-1 has won 73 percent of the time, and the team that wins Game 5 at 2-2 81 percent.
| Series score | Series | Team ahead won | Team behind won | Comeback rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leads 1-0 | 648 | 487 | 161 | 25% |
| Leads 2-0 | 367 | 338 | 29 | 8% |
| Leads 2-1 | 484 | 379 | 105 | 22% |
| Leads 3-0 | 164 | 164 | 0 | 0% |
| Leads 3-1 | 304 | 289 | 15 | 5% |
| Leads 3-2 | 366 | 306 | 60 | 16% |
| Wins Game 3 at 1-1 | 281 | 205 | 76 | 27% |
| Wins Game 5 at 2-2 | 243 | 198 | 45 | 19% |
Every NBA team that came back from 3-1 down
The 15 comebacks match Wikipedia's list of 3-1 comebacks. Four of the teams went on to win the title: the Boston Celtics in 1968 and 1981, the Houston Rockets in 1995 and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, the only team to come back from 1-3 in the Finals, against a Golden State Warriors team that had won 73 regular-season games.
Home court helped most of them. Teams with home-court advantage that fell behind 1-3 came back 9 times in 97, 9 percent, while teams without it came back 4 times in 198, 2 percent, leaving aside the 2020 bubble. Outside the bubble, only four comebacks ended with a Game 7 win on the road: Boston at the Philadelphia 76ers in 1968, Houston at the Phoenix Suns in 1995, Cleveland at Golden State in 2016 and Philadelphia at Boston in 2026.
| Year | Round | Came back from 1-3 | Against | Game 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | First round | Philadelphia 76ers | Boston Celtics | 109-100, away |
| 2026 | First round | Detroit Pistons | Orlando Magic | 116-94, home |
| 2020 | Conf. semifinals | Denver Nuggets | LA Clippers | 104-89, 2020 bubble |
| 2020 | First round | Denver Nuggets | Utah Jazz | 80-78, 2020 bubble |
| 2016 | Finals | Cleveland Cavaliers | Golden State Warriors | 93-89, away |
| 2016 | Conf. finals | Golden State Warriors | Oklahoma City Thunder | 96-88, home |
| 2015 | Conf. semifinals | Houston Rockets | Los Angeles Clippers | 113-100, home |
| 2006 | First round | Phoenix Suns | Los Angeles Lakers | 121-90, home |
| 2003 | First round | Detroit Pistons | Orlando Magic | 108-93, home |
| 1997 | Conf. semifinals | Miami Heat | New York Knicks | 101-90, home |
| 1995 | Conf. semifinals | Houston Rockets | Phoenix Suns | 115-114, away |
| 1981 | Conf. finals | Boston Celtics | Philadelphia 76ers | 91-90, home |
| 1979 | Conf. finals | Washington Bullets | San Antonio Spurs | 107-105, home |
| 1970 | Division semifinals | Los Angeles Lakers | Phoenix Suns | 129-94, home |
| 1968 | Division finals | Boston Celtics | Philadelphia 76ers | 100-96, away |
Thirty-eight teams have forced a Game 7 after trailing 1-3, and 15 of them won it, 39 percent. The Celtics, Rockets, Detroit Pistons and Denver Nuggets have come back from 1-3 twice each; the 76ers, Suns, Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Clippers have each blown two 3-1 leads. Denver did it twice in one postseason, in the 2020 bubble, and the two comebacks of 2026 were the first pair in the same round.
Reverse sweeps: no NBA team has come back from 0-3
No. Of the 164 teams that lost the first three games of a best-of-seven series, 101 were swept, 47 went out in Game 5 and 12 in Game 6. Four forced a Game 7 and lost it:
- 1951 Finals: the New York Knicks against the Rochester Royals, beaten 79-75 in Rochester.
- 1994 conference semifinals: the Denver Nuggets against the Utah Jazz, beaten 91-81 in Utah.
- 2003 first round: the Portland Trail Blazers against the Dallas Mavericks, beaten 107-95 in Dallas.
- 2023 Eastern Conference finals: the Celtics against the Miami Heat, beaten 103-84 at home, the only one of the four with home court.
The NBA is the only one of the three leagues without a reverse sweep: in hockey four of 218 teams have come back from 0-3, and in baseball one of 44, the 2004 Boston Red Sox.
NBA comebacks from 0-2 and 0-1, round by round
The Finals have been the friendliest round for a team that falls behind early. Teams that lost Game 1 of the Finals won the title 30 percent of the time, and five of 38 came back from 0-2, 13 percent: the 1969 Celtics, the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, the 2006 Heat, the 2016 Cavaliers and the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks. Yet only one of 39 Finals teams down 1-3 came back.
| Round | Best-of-7 series | Came back from 0-1 | From 0-2 | From 1-3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First round (2003-2026) | 192 | 47 of 192 (24%) | 8 of 115 (7%) | 5 of 95 (5%) |
| Conference or division semifinals | 236 | 61 of 236 (26%) | 10 of 129 (8%) | 5 of 107 (5%) |
| Conference or division finals | 140 | 29 of 140 (21%) | 6 of 85 (7%) | 4 of 63 (6%) |
| Finals | 80 | 24 of 80 (30%) | 5 of 38 (13%) | 1 of 39 (3%) |
Losing the first two at home is less fatal than it sounds, since the series then moves to the trailing team's building: teams with home court that fell behind 0-2 came back 5 times in 43, 12 percent, against 24 in 315, 8 percent, for teams that lost the first two on the road. The 25 comebacks from 0-2 since 1984 are listed in our study of NBA Game 1 winners; four came earlier, among them the 1971 Baltimore Bullets against the Knicks.
Comebacks have become more common. From 1947 to 2002, teams down 0-2 won 4 percent of best-of-seven series; since the first round went to seven games in 2003, 11 percent. The rate from 1-3 rose from 4 to 6 percent, and from 0-1 from 20 to 28 percent.
How NBA comebacks compare with the NHL and MLB
Basketball leads are the safest of the three. A 3-1 lead has held 95 percent of the time in the NBA, 91 percent in the NHL, where 32 teams have come back from 3-1 in 362 series, and 86 percent in baseball, where teams down 1-3 have come back 14 times in 97.
| League | Up 1-0 won | Up 2-0 won | Up 3-1 won | Up 3-0 won | Home team in Game 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NBA, 1947-2026 | 487 of 648 (75%) | 338 of 367 (92%) | 289 of 304 (95%) | 164 of 164 (100%) | 115 of 156 (74%) |
| NHL, 1919-2026 | 546 of 802 (68%) | 366 of 424 (86%) | 330 of 362 (91%) | 214 of 218 (98%) | 118 of 203 (58%) |
| MLB, LCS and World Series | 129 of 200 (65%) | 81 of 97 (84%) | 83 of 97 (86%) | 43 of 44 (98%) | - |
Game 7 home team record in the NBA
Home teams have won 115 of the 156 Game 7s played in home arenas, 74 percent, and 16 of the 20 in the Finals. That is a much bigger edge than in hockey, where home teams have won 118 of 203 Game 7s, 58 percent. Our total of 160 Game 7s, with the four in the 2020 bubble, matches Wikipedia's list.
The edge is shrinking. Home teams won 85 percent of Game 7s from 1947 to 1969, 79 percent from 1970 to 1989 and 78 percent from 1990 to 2009, but 62 percent since 2010. Since 2017 they are 14-16, and since 2022, 8-10.
Comebacks in the 2026 NBA playoffs, and the 2026-27 season
The 2026 playoffs had five Game 7s, tying the record set in 1994 and matched in 2014 and 2016, and road teams won three of them. In the Eastern Conference first round, the Pistons came back from 1-3 against the Magic and won Game 7 116-94 at home, and the 76ers came back from 1-3 against the Celtics and won Game 7 109-100 in Boston. The Cleveland Cavaliers then came back from 0-2 to beat Detroit 125-94 in Game 7 on the road, and the San Antonio Spurs won Game 7 of the Western Conference finals at Oklahoma City, 111-103.
Six teams led a series 3-1 in 2026, and four held on, among them the New York Knicks, who beat the Spurs 4-1 in the Finals for the title. It was the 27th postseason in a row with at least one Game 7; the last without one was 1999.
The 2026-27 regular season began on Tuesday, October 20. Every game is on the NBA schedule, and the NBA simulator plays out the season from the standings and marks the playoff and play-in places.
NBA playoff series comebacks: frequently asked questions
How many NBA teams have come back from 3-1 down? Fifteen through the 2026 playoffs, out of 304 best-of-seven series that reached 3-1. The most recent were the 2026 Detroit Pistons, against the Orlando Magic, and the 2026 Philadelphia 76ers, against the Boston Celtics.
Has an NBA team ever come back from 0-3 down? No. All 164 teams that led a best-of-seven series 3-0 won it, and only four of the teams behind forced a Game 7: the 1951 Knicks, the 1994 Nuggets, the 2003 Trail Blazers and the 2023 Celtics.
How often do NBA teams come back from 0-2? 8 percent of the time, 29 times in 367 best-of-seven series. The most recent was the 2026 Cleveland Cavaliers, against the Detroit Pistons.
What is the home team's record in Game 7 in the NBA? 115-41, or 74 percent, leaving out the four Game 7s of the 2020 bubble, and 16-4 in the Finals.
How this was built: all 648 NBA playoff series that the winner closed with four wins, 1947 to 2026, 3,665 games. Games from 1984 come from NBA.com's official game logs, earlier ones from Wikipedia's game-by-game pages, checked against the series score each page gives. Rounds are placed by counting back from the Finals, and every Finals result matches NBA.com's list of champions except 1952, which it gives as 4-1; that Final went seven games. A series counts once at every score it reached. Home teams are the ones listed; home-court figures leave out the 2020 bubble.