After falling to the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA Play-In Tournament, the Sacramento Kings' 2024-25 season is now over. This offseason will be a busy one, as the Kings have a ton of decisions they need to make in regards to what the direction of the teamwill be moving forward.
But that will be for the new front office regime (led by Scott Perry) to figure out. For now, fans can sit back and enjoy what promises to be a great postseason. And in honor of that now being underway, here is a comprehensive list of every team to ever make a 3-1 series comeback.
How many teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit in NBA history?
As of writing this (April 19, 2025), there have been 13 successful 3-1 comebacks. The first one came in 1968 when the Boston Celtics came back from 3-1 against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Division finals. They went on to win the NBA Finals that year.
The most recent one was during The Bubble when the Denver Nuggets came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference Semifinals. As fate would have it, those two teams are squaring off this year in the first round of the playoffs for the first time since that happened. The Nuggets actually did it twice that year. Once against the Clippers, and once against the Utah Jazz in the first round of the postseason.
Have the Sacramento Kings ever made a 3-1 comeback?
Given that this is a website dedicated to the Kings, we would be remiss not to mention them specifically in this post (even though we won't be watching them in the playoffs this year).
As it stands, the Kings have never made a 3-1 series comeback. The good news, though, is that the Kings have also never been on the receiving end of one of these backbreaking runs. What is that saying? Better to not have loved than to have loved and failed? I'm totally kidding, but at least the Kings haven't had to endure that sort of heartbreak. We all know that they have already experienced plenty of it in many other ways.
The Celtics and Nuggets are tied for the most 3-1 comebacks (both of them have done it twice). Meanwhile, the Clippers and 76ers are tied for the most 3-1 comebacks surrender (two each).