After their lopsided Game 4 loss on Sunday, the Cleveland Cavaliers now face a 3-1 series deficit against the Indiana Pacers. Now, in order for the number one seed in the Eastern Conference to avoid elimination, they’ll have to do something that only 13 NBA teams have ever done.
Only 13 NBA Teams Have Completed 3-1 Comebacks
The Cavaliers cruised through the regular season. They held their spot as the top seed in the East throughout their entire schedule, finishing with a mark of 64-18 and three games better than the defending champion Boston Celtics. It was the second-best regular season record in Cavs history.
But after cruising through a first round sweep of the Miami Heat, Cleveland finds itself with its back up against the wall. They showed life in Game 3 after facing a 2-0 series deficit to the Pacers in round two, but they couldn’t keep the momentum going for an all-important Game 4. They are now down three games to one, and just a single loss away from being sent packing for the season.
A comeback is possible, however unlikely based on NBA history.
There have been just 13 instances of teams coming back from 3-1 series holes. Perhaps the most notable was made by the same Cavaliers during the NBA Finals in 2016. Faced with elimination, LeBron James and company completed a comeback to knock off the Golden State Warriors, who had finished the regular season with the best record in NBA history. It came just one series after the Warriors completed an identical comeback of their own, as they took down the Oklahoma City Thunder in order to advance to the championship round.
That remains the only blown 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals.
It has only happened twice since then, and happened to the same team in the same year. During the 2020 Playoffs that took place in The Bubble, the Denver Nuggets completed two 3–1 comebacks in back-to-back series, but came up short in the Western Conference Finals against the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers.
The first step for this year’s Cavaliers team will be to take the next contest at home. Game 5 will be played on Tuesday night in Cleveland, and the Cavs have opened as 6.5-point favorites.
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