Here's How Tough A Sled It's Going To Be For The Timberwolves To Traverse To The NBA Finals
This is every instance in which a favored team in an NBA Playoffs series started 0-2 with both losses coming on home court. The very situation the young Minnesota Timberwolves find themsleves in now.
Out of the 35 teams who played a best of seven series, only six managed to come back and win. About 17% - which actually doesn't sound as bad as I'd have figured. So I guess this thing isn't over quite yet. But they are on life support now as anyone in Boston can tell you no one's come back to win four in a row after going down 0-3. Even if they won their next three (see row 1 above).
Funny little trend buried in the table. The Clippers were the last team to overcome this precise predicament (2021). But they came back to win their series vs the Mavs. So Dallas dwellers don't get too excited just yet. But the Mavericks were on the winning end of this themselves in 2005 vs the Rockets who were on the winning end the instance before that vs the Suns in 1994.
Not done yet.
Just one year before that in 1993 the Suns were victors vs the Lakers after going down 0-2 at home and the Lakers themselves were the last team before that as they pulled through vs the Warriors (albeit like 30 years earlier).
Still, WTF?
Anyway - what's the take-away here? What are we to glean? What are we to learn about a Minnesota team we all thought officially "arrived" and was about to take the West who now find themselves in an 0-2 hole after two games at home?
To me, there's really only one thing.
Remember when pretty much everyone on ESPN was saying the Lakers could have made it all the way to the Finals had they not run into the juggernaut champion Denver Nuggets in the first round? Whoops! That take aged worse than Greg Oden. As of now, the following is the highest possible playoff conclusion to play out.
Lakers < Nuggets < Timberwolves < Mavericks < Celtics
That's gold right there. Pure gold.
One other thing from the list above. How very Celtics of the Celtics to manage to go down 0-2 at home twice in the same season (2016-17) and four times overall in the last eight. Also, shout out to my Bulls. I'm both shocked and proud they were good enough once in the last couple decades to appear as an 0-2 at home in playoffs loser.
Anyway, keep your heads up Timberwolves. This isn't over. There's no reason to believe you can't come back to win this series and become Western Conference champions.
Now that the Lakers are out.