Good News For Celtics Fans: NBA Favorites Down 0-2 In A Best of Seven Still Have A Fighter's Chance
Honestly? Not as fucked as I'd have thought. 11 of 56 teams in NBA history who lost the first two games at home as the favorite in a best of seven series ended up coming back to win. That's about 20 percent. Obviously not ideal, but it's pretty much the odds of a random NBA player missing a free throw. There's a real chance. And if any team can do it, it's the Boston Celtics who have come back to win the series in this situation a league-leading three times.
Obviously, they can't lose Game 3. No team has ever come back from an 0-3 hole. But since the Celtics have been the most hot and cold team in the league, there's at least hope they catch fire down in the Miami sun. And Miami has been pretty up and down themselves. I ran some random scoring streak numbers with 10-0 and 8-0 runs to get a since of what teams left are the most consistent throughout games:
10-0 Runs
- Celtics (14)
- Lakers (13)
- Heat (9)
- Nuggets (7)
8-0 Runs
- Lakers (32)
- Celtics (30)
- Heat (25)
- Nuggets (19)
10-0 Runs (Given up)
- Lakers (9)
- Heat (8)
- Celtics (7)
- Nuggets (4)
8-0 Runs (Given up)
- Lakers (23)
- Celtics (21)
- Heat (21)
- Nuggets (13)
What is there to take from all this? The Denver Nuggets are consistent as fuck. Sure, they don't go on long streaks as often, but they only give scoring runs up about half as much as every other team left. Oh yeah, and they tie the Heat for longest scoring streak of the playoffs with 19 points in a row. But this blog isn't about the Nuggets. To give C's fans some hope, you can point to the fact that the Celtics have gone on more scoring runs than the Heat while giving up about the same.
Is this a sad, grasping at straws way of building confidence? Absolutely. 100 percent. But what else is there to do when a team blows their first two games at home? But who knows. Maybe the Miami sun will give Jayson "Wilting Clover in the 4th" Tatum the vitamin D he needs to sprout a point in the fourth quarter. If Miami is about as streaky a team as the Celtics, maybe the pendulum swings. Anyone that plays blackjack knows winning your first two hands means nothing. So all in all, there's a lot of series left (unless they lose today).
Enjoy the game.
- Jeffro