An 0-2 deficit is one that some unlucky NBA teams face every postseason.
It's a big hole to dig yourself out of in the NBA—in a seven-game series, a team subsequently needs to win four out of the remaining five games to survive and advance. It was even harder in earlier editions of the playoffs where there were best-of-five playoff series.
How insurmountable is an 0-2 deficit in the NBA playoffs? It's tough to recover from, but not impossible.
Through the 2024 NBA postseason, there are 459 different playoff series in the history of the league where a team has faced an 0-2 deficit. NBA teams have come back to win the series a total of 34 times—just a 7.4% come back rate, according to Land of Basketball.
The most recent team to complete the come back? The 2024 Indiana Pacers, who overcame an 0-2 deficit to the New York Knicks to win the Eastern Conference semifinals series and advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
Here is the full list of all 34 teams who have come back from an 0-2 deficit in NBA history.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Many Teams Have Come Back From Down 0-2 in the NBA Playoffs?.
