Throughout the NBA's 76-year history, only three teams have accomplished the feat of dragging the series into a tie-break when trailing 3-0:
Team 1: New York Knicks 1951 Finals
The Knicks finished third in the East with 36-30 in the regular season, and their Finals rival the Rochester Royals, who finished second in the West with 41-21 in the regular season. In the first game of the series, the Knicks were helpless and suffered a 27-point defeat. Then they lost two more games in a row and were about to be swept away. After that, the injury of Jack Coleman, the inside core of the Royals, gave the Knicks a chance to fight back, and they won three games in a row to drag the Finals into a tie-for-seven. However, Coleman eventually shattered the Knicks' championship dreams, and he played in the Finals G7 with injuries and scored 9 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists, helping the Royals win 79-75 and avoid the embarrassment of a 3-0 lead being reversed.
Second team: Denver Nuggets 1994 Western Conference semifinals
In the 1993–94 season, the Nuggets went 42-40 in the regular season, eighth in the West. In the first round of the playoffs, they won three straight games after trailing 2-0 against the Seattle SuperSonics, staging the NBA's first Black Eight miracle. In the Western Conference semifinals, the Nuggets faced the Utah Jazz, who finished fifth in the West in the regular season. After the first three games, the Nuggets trailed 3-0, and just when people thought the Nuggets would be swept out, the Black Eight proved that he was not a waste. In series G4, the Nuggets dodged Honasek's kill, and finally survived 83-82. G5, Nuggets again in double overtime against Jazz 109-101. G6 Mutombo scored 23 points, 12 rebounds, 3 steals and 5 blocks to lead the team to defend the home court and draw the series 3-3. In the tiebreaker, Uncle Mu failed to prevent Malone and let the latter slash 31 points, 14 rebounds and 6 assists, and the Nuggets lost to the Jazz 81-91, failing to carry out the miracle to the end.
Third: Portland Blazers 2003 Western Conference Playoffs First Round
The Blazers ranked sixth in the West in the regular season with 50-32 and faced the 60-22 Lone Rangers in the first round, a strength gap that allowed the Blazers to lose by 26 points in the first three games. When it came to the G4 life and death battle, the Blazers changed their minds and put sophomore Zach Randolph in the starting lineup. Randolph also showed the sharpness of the newborn calf, G4 cut 25 points and 15 rebounds, G522 points and 9 rebounds, G621 points and 10 rebounds, under his leadership, the Blazers won three consecutive games to drag the series into Game 7.
After the seven-point battle, the Blazers entered the final quarter with a two-point advantage, but then the Lone Ranger's sixth man, Nick Van Exel, suddenly broke out, he scored 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting in a single quarter, leading the Lone Ranger to a 36-22 single-quarter run, rejecting the Blazers' three to chase four.
Now that the Celtics are the fourth team in league history to trail 3-0 to drag the series into a best-of-seven game, can they break the fate of being eliminated from 150 times 0-3 down and become the first team to turn around? Tomorrow morning's Seven Battle will be known!
