2023 NBA Playoffs: Why is it called a sweep when a team beats its oponent 4-0?
With the 76ers having swept the Nets, now is as good a time as any to take a look at just where the term “sweep” comes from and what it refers to in the NBA.
Whether we’re talking about baseball, basketball, hockey or even football, it’s the thing that no team wants to experience. Yet, just what is a ‘sweep’ in sports and where does the term come from? Let’s take a look.
76ers sweep Nets without Joel Embiid
On Saturday night, an ‘Embiidless’ 76ers team completed the sweep on the New Jersey Nets to advance to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. With that the Sixers took another step toward proving their worth the hype that has surrounded them this season, while the Nets further confirmed that they are in desperate need of a rebuild following the high-profile departures of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving during this last season. In terms of how the night went, it’s worth mentioning that Tobias Harris stepped up to the plate in a big way. With 25 points and 12 rebounds, Harris was immense and so too was James Harden who added a further 17 points and 11 assists in what turned out to be a 96-88 Philly win.
The origin of the term “sweep”
As you probably know most North American sports use the best of seven format to determine the victor when it comes to the playoff end of their yearly campaigns. Whether we’re talking the MLB, NHL or the NBA - the NFL just has a straight knock out format - the principle is the same: win four games and you advance or become champion. Needless to say, if you manage to win four consecutive games without taking a loss, that’s both a serious affirmation of your team as the better of the two and an even more severe condemnation of the opponent as inferior.
Yet, where does this term come from? Simply, the term stems from the figurative language of “cleaning out” or rather “to make a clean sweep” of something. Quite literally, when one sweeps a surface, the dust/dirt is moved in the direction that you sweep in. Between the momentum of your sweeping action and the whiskers of the broom, the dust goes where you want it to. That’s to say, it’s an action which is completely dominant in nature as it leaves the dust with no option but to be moved. Similarly, when it comes to sports, that’s essentially what one team does when they “sweep” the other. They “never missed a spot” and therefore fully cleaned the floor. So, to be clear, to sweep a team is two win a series against them without losing one game. The first sweep in the NBA occurred in the finals of 1949, when the Boston Celtics swept the then Minneapolis Lakers to win their second title.