The San Antonio Spurs entered the 2026 NBA Finals as the favorites over the New York Knicks, but things haven’t gone according to plan so far. The Knicks stunned the basketball world by winning Game 1 105-95, and followed that up with a thrilling 105-104 win in Game 2.
The Knicks are now firmly in the driver’s seat as this series shifts to New York, and the Spurs have their backs against the wall. While they’d still believe they can turn things around, we haven’t seen teams overcome a 2-0 series deficit too many times in the Finals in NBA history. It has only happened on five occasions, and here we take a look at those.
2021 Milwaukee Bucks
The 2020-21 Milwaukee Bucks are the most recent entry on the list. The Bucks fell down 2-0 to the Phoenix Suns, and they didn’t come particularly close to winning either game. The Suns won Game 1 118-105 and Game 2 118-108.
The Bucks would then respond in style in Game 3 with a dominant 120-100 win as Giannis Antetokounmpo racked up 41 points. Game 4, though, would prove to be a tighter affair with the Suns leading for much of the way.
The Bucks stepped up when it mattered, however, winning the game 109-103 thanks to a dominant fourth quarter, which they won 33-21. This contest is often remembered for Antetokounmpo’s incredible block on Deandre Ayton in the closing stages.
Game 5 would see another huge clutch defensive stop as Jrue Holiday ripped the ball from Devin Booker when he had a chance to put the Suns up in the closing stages. The Bucks would end up winning 123-119 to set the stage for one of the greatest closeout game performances in NBA history.
Antetokounmpo scored 50 points in Game 6 to power the Bucks to a 105-98 win. It was a special performance by a special player.
2016 Cleveland Cavaliers
There isn’t much that needs to be said about the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ incredible comeback in 2016. The Cavaliers were down 2-0 and then 3-1 to the 73-win Golden State Warriors and looked down and out.
The Warriors had won Game 1 104-89, Game 2 110-77, and Game 4 108-97. The Cavaliers had recorded a crushing 120-90 win in between all of that, but clearly looked like the inferior team.
Crucially, though, Warriors star Draymond Green would be suspended for Game 5 due to an accumulation of flagrant foul points. The Cavaliers took advantage, with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving scoring 41 points each to lead their team to a 112-97 win.
James then had 41 again in Game 6 to power the Cavaliers to a 115-101 win and tie the series at 3-3. We had seen quite a few blowouts in this series, but Game 7 would be close.
The teams were tied at 89 for what seemed like forever in the fourth quarter, and two iconic plays would end up defining this contest. James’ iconic chasedown block on Andre Iguodala ensured the score was tied, and Irving then drilled a clutch three-pointer over Stephen Curry in the final minute to put the Cavaliers up for good. They ended up winning 93-89 to become the first team to overturn a 3-1 deficit in the Finals.
2006 Miami Heat
The Miami Heat were the first team in the 21st century to pull off the comeback, doing so against the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks won Game 1 90-80 and Game 2 99-85, and even looked set to take a 3-0 lead.
The Heat trailed by 13 points with about six minutes remaining in Game 3, but stormed back and won 98-96. Dwyane Wade scored 42 points that night, and he’d be a central figure in this series.
A dominant 98-74 Heat win in Game 4 tied things up, and we’d then get to the controversial bit. Wade infamously shot 25 free throws in Game 5, much to the Mavericks’ frustration. He sank two free throws right at the end of overtime to give the Heat a 101-100 win.
Game 6 nearly went to overtime as well, but Jason Terry missed a three-pointer in the final seconds, and that was that. The Heat won 95-92 to clinch their first NBA title.
1977 Portland Trail Blazers
We have to go way back in time for the second entry. The Philadelphia 76ers put themselves in a commanding position in the 1977 NBA Finals by winning Game 1 107-101 and Game 2 107-89 against the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Trail Blazers looked outmatched, but they dominated once the series shifted to Portland. They won Game 3 129-107 and then Game 4 130-98.
The Trail Blazers continued their domination in Game 5 in Philadelphia, leading 91-69 in the fourth quarter. 76ers superstar Julius Erving would attempt to mount a furious comeback, but they still lost 110-104.
It was more of the same in Game 6, as Erving looked to drag the 76ers back from a double-digit deficit. They had a chance to send this game to overtime, but George McGinnis missed the game-tying shot in the final seconds.
That meant the Trail Blazers won 109-107 to clinch their first NBA title. They had Bill Walton to thank for the comeback, as he averaged 16.5 points, 19.5 rebounds, and 6.5 assists over the last four games of the series.
1969 Boston Celtics
The very first time a team pulled off the 2-0 comeback was nearly 50 years ago. The Boston Celtics had dominated the NBA in the late 1950s and the 1960s, but it looked like the Los Angeles Lakers would finally beat them in 1969.
The Celtics had beaten the Lakers in six NBA Finals at that point, and Jerry West was sick of losing to them. West scored 94 points over the first two games to power the Lakers to a 120-118 win in Game 1 and then a 118-112 win in Game 2.
The Celtics rebounded with a 111-105 win in Game 3, but were in trouble next time out. The Lakers led by a point and had the ball in the final seconds, but Elgin Baylor was then adjudged to have stepped out of bounds. That gave the Celtics the ball, and Sam Jones drilled a game-winning buzzer-beater to tie the series.
The Lakers would go up again with a 117-104 win in Game 5, but West suffered a hamstring injury at the end of that game. He’d play the rest of the series, but wasn’t at his best in Game 6, which the Celtics won 99-90.
West then racked up 42 points in Game 7, but the Lakers still lost 108-106 to hand the Celtics another championship. The guard had played so well, though, that he won Finals MVP despite being on the losing team.
So, the Celtics aside, it took some Herculean performances from superstars for their teams to complete the comebacks. Spurs center Victor Wembanyama is fully capable of those, too, but there is one significant difference here.
All five of those teams had lost the first two games on the road. The Spurs lost them in San Antonio. It is just the third time in history that a team lost Games 1 and 2 at home in the Finals. The 1993 Suns did it first against the Chicago Bulls, and the 1995 Orlando Magic then did it against the Houston Rockets.
The Suns lost in six games while the Magic got swept. It’s very likely that the Spurs suffer the same fate as those two. Had these two games in the 2026 NBA Finals taken place in New York, you’d have given them a realistic chance, but it seems too big a hole for them to dig themselves out of.
