DALLAS — Only five teams who have trailed 2-0 in the NBA Finals have come back to win it all – that’s from a 36-year sample size, a striking 86% win rate for teams in the same position the Celtics are currently.
But both Kyrie Irving (2016) and Jrue Holiday (2021) overcame such deficits en route to their first NBA championship. Their experiences serve as a reminder that the Celtics’ 2-0 lead is far from definitive.
“We still know being up 2-0 means nothing,” Holiday said after the Game 2 win. “Job’s not done. We have to do whatever it takes.”
When Jrue Holiday was on the Bucks in 2021, they trailed 0-2 against the Phoenix Sun and headed home with the odds stacked against them. But rather than folding, they rattled off four straight wins and won the franchise’s first championship in 40 years.
Holiday played an instrumental role in that series win – averaging 16.7 points and 9.3 assists – and was responsible for the most famous play of those Finals, a steal and lob to Giannis Antetokoumpo to seal Game 5.
Kyrie Irving was similarly part of a Finals comeback – the greatest Finals comeback of all times, when the Cleveland Cavaliers trailed the 73-9 Warriors 3-1.
“It took a lot of will to win in 2016,” Kyrie Irving said on Media Day ahead of Game 3. That year, the Cavs fell 0-2 against the greatest regular season team in NBA history, and then overcame a 3-1 deficit to win the franchise’s first-ever championship. Irving and LeBron James strung together one of the best three-game performances in Finals history to solidify the comeback and secure a ring.
Kyrie Irving 2016 NBA Finals
27.1 PPG
3.9 RPG
3.9 APG
46.8 FG%
40.5 3P%One of the greatest individual final’s performances of all time that doesn’t get enough credit
A11Even Tribe pic.twitter.com/I320sDoUDK
— (@Tsunamidrako) July 31, 2023
Irving reflected on what made that comeback work.
“We had time to fail together,” he said. “We had time to go through our trials together. We lost in 2015. A lot of guys came back in 2016 and we won. So, there was an inner motivation there. We also knew who we were going against, how well they played. I think if you have a healthy way or perspective of looking at where we are now, it feels like we are that team that’s gaining the experience, that’s being able to fail at this level.”
Through two games, Kyrie Irving has struggled – averaging 14 points on 35% shooting. The role players around him have struggled even more — non-Luka players shot 2-17 from three in Game 1, for example.
But Irving has worked to uplift his teammates and infuse them with the confidence in hopes to replicate his success in 2016.
“Now we have an opportunity to respond. That’s all you can ask for in a basketball season,” Irving said. “If you asked me in September or October, would I want a chance to be down 0-2 and having a chance to respond in Game 3 or be out of the playoffs, I think I would choose the former. It’s as simple as that in terms of putting it in perspective. We’re the only teams left. This is about chess. That’s all it is.”
The Celtics, however, have shown no signs of complacency entering Game 3. Part of that complacency likely stems from the fact that the Celtics have been on the other side of the coin; in 2022, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Al Horford held a 2-1 Finals lead and seemed poised to win heir first championship but lost three games in a row.
Brown has been at the forefront of the charge — he’s in the midst of a career-best playoff run in which he is averaging 24 points on 54.3% shooting.
“I like to pride myself that I always try to play with that fire and that passion,” Brown said. “I feel like that’s what makes me who I am, the essence of why I play and how I play. But my experiences, the heartbreaks, the losses, have all kind of cultivated into what you see now. I don’t want to feel that again. I think that’s fair to say.”
“It’s almost like you got to trick your mind almost in a sense,” Brown said. “You almost got to play like you’re down 0-2 rather than up. That’s hard to do. You got to go into that mind frame, that focus.”
If the Celtics win on Wednesday, they’ll put themselves in position to take a 3-0 lead — a lead no team in NBA history has ever come back from. If they lose, they could be opening the door on a Finals comeback both Irving and Holiday have successfully been a part of.
“Trying to be the hungrier team,” Holiday said of the Celtics’ mindset entering Game 3. “We’re going to go out there and try and execute a game plan.”
