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The Boston Celtics avoided a sweep with their Game 4 win against the Miami Heat. The team will host the Miami Heat on Thursday in Boston for Game 5. The game tips off at 8:30pm ET and airs on TNT.
Before Game 4, Mike Greenberg, host of ESPN’s “Get Up”, made the bold claim that the Celtics would come back from 3-0 down in the series to advance to the finals, becoming the first team in NBA history to do so:
“I was telling everyone that would listen to me that the Celtics are going to come back and win this series”
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Greenberg had some interesting logic in backing up his claim. He said the Celtics have a better percentage chance to win each remaining game:
“I will continue to use the tossing a coin analogy. Can the Celtics win four straight against Miami? It sounds unlikely but in every game they have a better than 50-50 chance of winning because they are the better team.”
He is not convinced that the Heat are better even though they beat Boston in three straight games. Two of those games came on the road in Boston.
“Taking each game onto itself, they should win every one of them”
Has any team ever come back from 3-0 down in a playoff series?
No team has ever erased a 3-0 deficit in NBA playoffs history. Thirteen teams have come back from 3-1 down in a NBA playoff series before. Most notably, the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from 3-1 down to beat the 73-win Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals.
One team pulled off the feat in baseball. The 2004 Boston Red Sox erased a 3-0 series deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the American League championship series and went on to win the World Series.
Four teams have made the miraculous comeback in hockey. It has been done twice in the NHL playoffs since 2010. The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Boston Bruins after being down 3-0 in the 2010 playoffs.
In 2014 the Los Angeles Kings came back from 3-0 down to eliminate the San Jose Sharks in the western conference playoffs on the way to the 2014 championship.
