CLEVELAND — In addition to the Knicks, the Cavaliers now have another opponent in their series: history.
And, now, the odds are stacked against them about as high as the New York skyline.
By losing Game 3 to the Knicks, the Cavs fell behind 0-3 in the Eastern Conference Finals, with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce in attendance, no less. Being down 0-2 was already a tough spot to be in, though they were able to recover in the second round against the Detroit Pistons.
But being down 0-3? Now, if they are to save their playoff lives, it will have to be with a feat that is nothing short of historic.
In NBA playoff history, 161 teams have gone down 0-3 in a series. Zero have come back to win it. In all the history of the league, with all the craziness of the playoffs, and all the variance that comes with a small sample, it’s never been done before — and it’s now exactly what the Cavs are facing.
It’s why the Game 3 loss felt particularly back-breaking. Donovan Mitchell, in frustration, began untucking his jersey even before the clock hit 0:00. The Cavs had a few defensive possessions late in the fourth quarter that could be described as noncompetitive, as the game was well out of reach.
There’s a reason an 0-2 deficit is a tough spot to be in, but an 0-3 hole suddenly feels like climbing Mt. Everest while wearing a T-shirt, shorts and flip flops.
“Yeah, get one. Get one. Get one and we’ll go from there,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said when asked about his message to the team in this spot. “It’s, ‘Win one.’ Our pride, our team pride, individual pride. Get one and we’ll go from there.”
Cavs NBA playoffs history
Of those 161 teams to fall behind 0-3 in an NBA playoff series, only four were able to even force a Game 7. It’s only happened once in the last two decades. None, of course, won Game 7.
In fact, only 15 of those teams even reached Game 6.
“Get ready for Monday and get one and then go to New York,” Mitchell said, referencing the team’s mindset. “You figure it out and get ready for Monday, and then we get ready to go to New York.”
Game 4 is set for May 25 at Rocket Arena. Game 5, if necessary, would be May 27 at Madison Square Garden. That’s what Mitchell is referencing. And although game-by-game is the proper approach, the Cavs have such a mountain to climb that even if they did that, and won in Cleveland then New York — they’d still only be halfway there, and would need to do it all over again in Games 6 and 7.
And they’d have to do it all after back-to-back Game 7s that involved 14 grueling playoff games against physical teams that has forced the Cavs to play games on every other day for a few weeks now.
The Knicks, meanwhile, are the most-rested team left in the playoffs and have now won 10 consecutive playoff games. The Cavs are not buried. The series is not over. But the historical evidence against them is staggering, and it paints a picture of the kind of task that now lies before them if they want to reach their first NBA Finals without LeBron James on the roster since 1992.
“I mean, [10] playoff wins in a row, that’s — I don’t know, that’s really hard to do,” Atkinson said of the Knicks. “They’re on a hell of a run. You know, we haven’t been able to stop the momentum. We had one chance in that first game, I thought, to stop it.”
No team has ever accomplished what the Cavs must now do to save their playoff lives. There’s no blueprint. There’s no precedent. So everything is on the table heading into Game 4.
“Yeah, we gotta look at it [all],” Atkinson said. “Do we go back and extend our rotation again? That’s something we could do. Gotta look at it. Obviously, our guys will get on their recovery … habits and all that, but we could look at playing a guy or two more. So that’s a possibility.”
It’s also certainly a possibility the Cavs come back to win the series. But down 0-3, they’d be the first. Then again, no team had ever come back down 3-1 in the NBA Finals to win the championship — until it happened in 2016.
Ryan Lewis covers the Cavaliers for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cavs will try to become first team to overcome 3-0 deficit in NBA history
Reporting by Ryan Lewis, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
