The NBA playoffs have already turned into a survival test, and that makes every old 3-1 comeback feel more relevant again. The Rockets are chasing something even bigger after falling behind 3-0 against the Lakers, a hole no NBA team has ever fully escaped. They have already cut the series to 3-2, and only four of the 159 teams to trail 3-0 have even forced a Game 7.
The Pistons are trying to finish their own comeback from 3-1 down against the Magic after Cade Cunningham’s 45-point Game 5 kept their season alive. The 76ers are even closer, as they already erased a 3-1 deficit against the Celtics and forced Game 7 behind Tyrese Maxey’s 30 points in Game 6.
That is why this history still carries weight. A 3-1 lead usually ends a series, but it does not end belief. Since 2000, seven teams have completed the comeback, with the Nuggets doing it twice in the same 2020 playoff run and the Cavaliers producing the only 3-1 comeback in NBA Finals history in 2016.
The list is short because the margin is brutal. One bad quarter can end the season. One road win can flip the pressure. One star performance can turn a dead series into a real fight. With several teams now trying to extend their seasons after falling behind, it is the right time to look back at every 3-1 comeback in NBA playoff history this century.
2003 East First Round – Pistons Beat Magic
The first 3-1 comeback of this century came with real embarrassment attached. The Pistons were the No. 1 seed in the East, had won 50 games, and entered the 2003 playoffs with a roster built around defense, toughness, and a new backcourt of Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton. The Magic were the No. 8 seed, but they had Tracy McGrady at the peak of his powers. McGrady had just led the NBA with 32.1 points per game, and for four games, he looked ready to drag the Magic into a major upset by himself.
The Magic stole Game 1, lost Game 2, then won both home games to take a 3-1 lead. McGrady was the whole story early in the series, scoring 40-plus twice and averaging 36.3 points through the first four games. The Pistons looked too slow, too limited offensively, and too dependent on defense to keep up with one of the best scorers in the league.
Then the series flipped completely. The Pistons held McGrady down just enough, cut off the support around him, and started playing like the higher seed. Billups became the offensive answer, scoring 77 combined points in Games 6 and 7, while Ben Wallace, Hamilton, and the rest of the group made every possession feel heavier for the Magic. The final three wins came by an average margin of 20 points, which made the comeback feel less like luck and more like order being restored.
The Pistons eventually lost in the Eastern Conference Finals, but this series became part of their rise. One year later, many of the same pieces won the 2004 championship. For the Magic, it became one of the defining heartbreaks of McGrady’s prime.
2006 West First Round – Suns Beat Lakers
The Suns were supposed to control this series. They were the No. 2 seed in the West, had Steve Nash in the middle of his second MVP season, and played the fastest, most exciting offense in the league. The Lakers were the No. 7 seed, but they had Kobe Bryant after one of the greatest scoring seasons ever. Bryant averaged 35.4 points per game in 2005-06, and for a few days, it looked like he was about to steal the series from a much deeper Suns team.
The Lakers took a 3-1 lead in dramatic fashion. Game 4 became one of Bryant’s signature playoff moments, as he forced overtime with a late layup and then hit the game-winner at the buzzer for a 99-98 win. At that point, the Lakers had momentum, Phil Jackson had never lost a playoff series after taking a series lead, and the Suns looked like a top seed about to waste a real chance.
Then the Suns found their rhythm again. The Suns won Game 5 at home, then survived Game 6 after a season-saving three-pointer late in regulation. Bryant scored 50 points in that game, but the Suns won 126-118 in overtime to force Game 7. That was the real turn. The Lakers had their chance to end it, missed it, and never looked the same after that.
Game 7 was not close. The Suns won 121-90, with Leandro Barbosa scoring 26 points off the bench and Shawn Marion adding 14 points and 10 rebounds. Bryant finished with 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting, but the Lakers were buried early and never recovered.
For the Suns, it was a rescue job. For the Lakers, it became one of the painful early playoff exits of Bryant’s post-Shaq era. A 3-1 lead had turned into a 31-point Game 7 loss.
2015 West Semifinals – Rockets Beat Clippers
The No. 3-seeded Clippers had this series in their hands. They were up 3-1, had Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and J.J. Redick playing at a high level, and looked ready to reach the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history. The Rockets were dangerous, but they looked broken after losing Game 4 by 33 points. James Harden was still an MVP-level scorer, but the Clippers had control of the tempo and the more complete team.
Then came one of the strangest collapses of the century. The Rockets won Game 5 at home to stay alive, but Game 6 is the reason this series is remembered. The Clippers led by 19 points in the second half and were still up 92-79 entering the fourth quarter. Harden spent the entire fourth quarter on the bench, which made the comeback even harder to believe. Instead, Josh Smith and Corey Brewer carried the Rockets with a wild run that stunned the Clippers in their own building. Brewer scored 15 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, and the Rockets won 119-107 to force Game 7.
Game 7 was not as dramatic. The Clippers looked tight, the Rockets looked free, and Harden finally closed the door with 31 points in a 113-100 win. Dwight Howard added 16 points and 15 rebounds, while Trevor Ariza gave the Rockets 22 points and strong two-way minutes. The Clippers had blown the best chance of that era, and the Rockets had completed one of the most unlikely mid-series turnarounds in recent playoff history.
For the Rockets, it was a defining Harden-era playoff win. For the Clippers, it became the collapse that followed that core for years. They were not beaten by one star performance. They were beaten by a fourth-quarter avalanche they never saw coming.
2016 NBA Finals – Cavaliers Beat Warriors
No 3-1 comeback carries more weight than this one. The Warriors had just finished a 73-9 regular season, the best record in NBA history, and were one win from turning that year into the strongest full-season performance the league had ever seen. Stephen Curry was the unanimous MVP. Klay Thompson had helped save the Warriors in the West Finals. Draymond Green was the emotional center of a team that looked ready to repeat.
Then the Cavaliers changed the ending.
The series looked close to finished after Game 4. The Warriors won on the road, took a 3-1 lead, and had three chances to close it out. But Green was suspended for Game 5, and LeBron James and Kyrie Irving used that opening to deliver one of the great dual performances in Finals history. Both scored 41 points in a 112-97 win, sending the series back to the Cavaliers with pressure suddenly moving the other way.
Game 6 made it feel possible. James scored 41 again, added 11 assists and eight rebounds, and controlled the game with his defense, passing, and force in transition. The Cavaliers won 115-101, and what had once looked like a historic Warriors coronation had become a Game 7 with everything on the line.
That final game became one of the defining games in NBA history. James finished with 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists. His chase-down block on Andre Iguodala protected a tie game late. Irving then hit the biggest shot of his career over Curry, giving the Cavaliers a lead they never gave back in a 93-89 win.
This was the first 3-1 comeback in NBA Finals history. It gave the Cavaliers their first championship and turned James’ legacy in a different direction. For the Warriors, it was the only missing piece in a 73-win season that should have ended with a title.
2020 West First Round – Nuggets Beat Jazz
The bubble gave this series a strange scenario, but the basketball heroics were impossible to ignore. The No. 3 Nuggets and the No. 6 Jazz played a first-round series with no home-court noise, no travel, and no normal playoff atmosphere. What they did have was one of the best scoring duels in postseason history between Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell.
The Jazz took control first. Mitchell opened the series with 57 points in an overtime loss, then kept attacking until the Jazz built a 3-1 lead. Game 4 was the peak of the duel, with Mitchell scoring 51 points and Murray answering with 50 in a 129-127 Jazz win. It was the first time in NBA playoff history that two opponents scored at least 50 points in the same game, and the Jazz looked one win away from closing the series.
Then Murray turned the series into his own stage. He scored 42 points in Game 5 to keep the Nuggets alive, then delivered 50 more in Game 6, including nine three-pointers, as the Nuggets forced Game 7 with a 119-107 win. Mitchell had 44 in that game, but the Jazz had already lost their chance to end the series before the pressure reached its highest point.
Game 7 was completely different. After six games of wild shot-making, the final game became a defensive fight. Murray scored 17 points, Mitchell had 22, and Nikola Jokic hit the go-ahead hook shot in the final minute. Mike Conley had a clean look at the buzzer, but his three-point attempt rimmed out, giving the Nuggets an 80-78 win and one of the most dramatic 3-1 comebacks of the century.
For the Nuggets, it was the start of a historic bubble run. For the Jazz, it became the series where Mitchell was brilliant and still left with nothing.
2020 West Semifinals – Nuggets Beat Clippers
The Nuggets did not wait long to do it again. After coming back from 3-1 down against the Jazz in the first round, they fell into the same hole against the Clippers, a team built to win the championship. The Clippers had Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, deep wing defenders, bench scoring, and the kind of roster that looked designed for the final rounds of the playoffs.
For four games, the series followed that script. The Clippers took a 3-1 lead after winning Game 4, and the Nuggets seemed to have finally run out of energy. They had already survived one seven-game series. Now they were facing a better, bigger, more talented opponent. The expectation was simple: the Clippers would close it out and move into the Western Conference Finals.
Instead, the Nuggets made history. Game 5 started the comeback, but Game 6 made the Clippers’ collapse feel real. The Nuggets erased another large deficit, with Nikola Jokic producing 34 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists in a 111-98 win that forced Game 7. Jamal Murray added 21 points, while Gary Harris, Michael Porter Jr., and Monte Morris gave the Nuggets just enough support around their stars.
Game 7 was the final shock. Murray scored 40 points, Jokic had a triple-double by the third quarter, and the Nuggets beat the Clippers 104-89. Leonard and George combined for only 24 points on 10-of-38 shooting, including 0 points in the fourth quarter. The Clippers did not just lose the series. They disappeared when the pressure got heaviest.
This comeback made the Nuggets the first team in NBA history to erase two 3-1 deficits in the same postseason. It also became one of the defining collapses of the Leonard-George Clippers era. The Nuggets were not supposed to have anything left. Instead, they ended the Clippers’ title dream and turned the bubble into their own legend.
