Can the Minnesota Timberwolves make history?
No NBA team has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit.
I keep a ticket stub in my wallet. It’s from 2004. Game 3 of the ALCS. I went to Fenway Park with my dad and two brothers to watch us lose 19-8 to the Yankees. Those were dark times. We were down 0-3 and just lost NINETEEN TO EIGHT, which was eerily similar to the haunting NINE-TEEN EIGHT-TEEN chants that we’d hear in Yankee Stadium all those years. Yes, we. I still talk about the Red Sox in the collective we.
The ticket stub has seen better days. It’s beat up after all these years of going through the wash. I’m terrible about leaving it in my pants. (I’m talking about my wallet, you guys). It’s now shredded into two pieces. It’s not in great shape.
But I hold onto the souvenir as a reminder. The 2004 Red Sox, of course, became the first MLB team ever to win a series after being down 0-3. And they did it against THE YANKEES. The tattered piece of paper reminds me that no matter how bad things get, it can always turn around. The 2004 Boston Red Sox taught me that. Sports!
Evidently, teams down 0-3 hold a special place in my heart because of that.
No NBA team has pulled off what the tattered ticket signifies.
Of the 155 times that an NBA team has gone down 0-3, zero have rallied back to win the series.
Which raises the question …
Can the Minnesota Timberwolves be the first to do it?
They’ve already forced a Game 5. Most teams down 0-3 don’t get that far.
Over at Basketball-Reference, we can look at series outcomes all the way back since 1984. Since then, teams are 116-0 when they go up 3-0.
Here’s how it breaks down:
Only 36 percent of the time did the series even get to a Game 5. So the Timberwolves are already ahead of the game. It ended there 32 times. Of the 10 teams that forced a Game 6, only three survived to Game 7. None won the series.1
From a basketball standpoint, I actually think the Timberwolves have a great shot at this thing. They are healthy. Each game has been super close. They have homecourt.
Personally, there’s a big reason why I can’t get on board with the Timberwolves going all the way. You’ll find out why at the bottom, although it might make me A lightning ROD in Minny.
Here are the three teams since 1984 that forced a Game 7 after going down 0-3. Let’s see how many similarities we can draw with this Timberwolves squad.