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When one team takes a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven series, it’s time to look ahead to the next round or the championship race.
Generally.
In the history of the sport, there have been a few teams that have held a 3-0 series lead and managed to lose three games in a row before recovering. Some of them have lost another game — and the series — as well.
That’s the history of the Miami Heat, who won the first three games of their NBA Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics and then lost the next three, including Game 6 at home on Saturday night.
Game 7 is Monday night in Boston, and the Heat are 48 minutes removed from historic infamy. No NBA team has blown a 3-0 series lead since 1947, when the NBA was called the Basketball Association of America and had teams like the Cleveland Rebels and St. Louis Bombers. This year, the Denver Nuggets took a 3-0 series lead against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, only to finish them off in a four-game sweep.
However, a collapse after taking a 3-0 series lead has happened in other competitions. Let’s relive some of those dark moments (for one team in that series anyway).
Basketball
Arguably the most famous 3-0 comeback in sports came in 2004, when the Boston Red Sox stunned their hated rivals, the Yankees, to make Major League Baseball history.
The American League Championship Series victory, which had escaped the jaws of defeat, came in defiance of the legendary Curse of the Bambino, which reportedly doomed the Red Sox to eternal defeat after they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.
“This is obviously a huge blow to us,” said Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, a sentiment the Heat may soon feel as well.
The only other time a major league team has come back from a 3-0 deficit, it didn’t finish the job. The Tampa Bay Rays raced out to a 3-0 lead in the 2020 ALCS, played at a neutral site in San Diego because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Houston Astros won the next three games, but Tampa Bay pulled out a 4-2 victory in the deciding game before losing the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I don’t know if I went to bed,” Rays Manager Kevin Cash said of the aftermath of Game 6. “It was tough, that’s for sure. A lot of anxiety.”
No team has ever blown a 3-0 lead in the World Series, but in the 1958 Japan Series, the Nishitetsu Lions came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Yomiuri Giants. In 1989, the Giants accomplished the same feat against the Kintetsu Buffaloes.
Hockey
The NHL has dealt fans the most four-game collapses, and one of those came in the Stanley Cup Finals.
In 1942, the Detroit Red Wings won the first three games, but the Toronto Maple Leafs came roaring back to win four games in a row. The Cup had switched to a best-of-seven format in 1939, and this was the first series to go the distance.
“By Jiminy,” was the response from Leafs legend Syl Apps after the game.
In previous rounds, the Islanders also won four games against the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1975, the Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins in 2010 and the Los Angeles Kings against the San Jose Sharks in 2014.
Basketball
While no NBA team has ever lost a series while leading 3-0, a few teams, such as this year’s Heat, have lost three in a row and are now 3-3.
It happened once in the Finals, in 1951. The Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings via Cincinnati, Kansas City, Mo., and Omaha) took a 3-0 lead over the Knicks, who came back with three wins. The final game came down to the final seconds before the Royals’ Bob Davies sealed it with two free throws.
It is the only championship for the Royals/Kings franchise in any city. The Knicks would have to wait until 1970 for their first.
Previous rounds also featured a three-game losing streak followed by a Game 7 loss. The Utah Jazz (1994) had faced the Denver Nuggets and the Dallas Mavericks (2003) had faced the Portland Trail Blazers.
So the full collapse never happened in the NBA. But in all of basketball?
How can you forget the classic Beermen-Aces series?
In the 2016 Philippine Cup final, the Alaska Aces looked set to win the title after three straight wins. (Their name comes from their sponsor, Alaska Milk, not their home base.)
But it was a mistake to write off the reigning champion San Miguel Beermen, who won four games in a row, accomplishing something no NBA team had ever accomplished.
The Celtics hope to play the Beermen on Monday night.
