How many times has a 2–0 comeback happened in NBA playoff history?

Momentum, history and statistics are behind both the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers as their Eastern conference playoff semi finals against the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers heads to the third game in the best of seven series.

Celtics crumble

The reigning NBA champions, Boston Celtics are in a pickle having lost the opening two games at their TD Garden home as the series now heads to New York.

Game two saw the Celtics lose by a single point as the home team scored just six points and just one field goal in the final 8:40 of Game 2.

For the second straight game the Celtics failed to get a shot off at the final buzzer and for the second straight game they blew a 20 point lead late in the third quarter.

Cleveland crisis

Tyrese Haliburton grabbed his own missed free throw and buried a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining, giving the visiting Indiana Pacers a 120-119 win over an under-strength Cleveland Cavaliers in game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, taking a commanding lead as the series heads to Indianapolis

The Pacers scored the final eight points after Donovan Mitchell made two free throws to push Cleveland’s lead to 119-112 with 57 seconds left. Baskets by Aaron Nesmith and Pascal Siakam made it a one-possession game, and Andrew Nembhard stole the subsequent inbounds pass from Max Strus.

Defying the odds

To progress to the Eastern conference final, both Boston and Cleveland have the odds very much stacked against them but their fans will cling to the small margin (7%) of hope.

Since 1956, 463 series playoff games (non-seven-games series included) started with a team winning each of the first two games. In 429 of those, the team with the advantage won the series to progress. Only 34 teams were able to overcome the 2-0 deficit, a 7.3% success rate.

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