In an earlier story, we saw the Cleveland Indians failed to protect a 3-1 series lead but another Cleveland team, earlier in the year, nailed a 1-3 comeback of their own.
The Lebron James-led Cavaliers defeated arguably the team who had the best season ever, the Golden State Warriors, despite losing three of the first four games to win the 2016 NBA finals in June last year, that somewhat eased the forthcoming loss of the Indians.
The Cavs win ended 45 years of title-less existence since they started playing during the 1970-71 season. Their drought was the fifth longest in the NBA before it was broken.
Let’s start this story with their victims. The Warriors were the defending champions. Golden State broke more than 25 NBA records and more than 10 franchise records during this season.
Among the marks re-established during this record-breaking season was winning 73 out of a possible 82 games to break a Michael Jordan led Bulls record, the 72-10 regular win-loss card. They also came back from a 1-3 deficit in the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder to become the only tenth NBA playoff team to successfully come back from a 1-3 series deficit in NBA history.
The Warriors, though, had to go through the whole 82 game schedule to get an NBA all-time record of 73 wins in a season. They were 72-9 going to the 82nd game and they defeated the Memphis Grizzles, 125-104, on April 13, 2016.
They easily reached the Western Conference Finals by whacking both the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trailblazers, 4-1.
Then they faced a determined Oklahoma City Thunder and quickly found themselves in a 1-3 hole, winning only game 2. They went on to add more sparkle to their franchise and win the next three games, two at home including game 7.
They faced the Cavaliers in the finals and quickly go up 3-1 this time, giving up only game 3 on the road.
They, would however, choke big time to Cleveland’s uprisng and fell victim to their own medicine.
The Cavs did a reversal to become the 11th team to achieve such feat and got their first ever NBA championship in the process, also the first title of a Cleveland team since 1964.
No team had ever rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA Finals. Only two other teams have forced an NBA Finals Game 7 after trailing 3-1, the 1951 New York Knicks against the Rochester Royals and the 1966 Los Angeles Lakers against the Boston Celtics. Both teams fell, however, short of winning the crown.
See earlier parts:
Remembering 2016: The year of the “Never Say Die”s and Drought Busters, Part 1
Remembering 2016, Part 2: Hidilyn Diaz ends four PH Olympic droughts
Remembering 2016, Part 3: BEERacle, SMB engineers Mother of all Hoops Comebacks
See next parts:
Remembering 2016, Part 5: Wala Nang Kangkongan, Ginebra Ends 8-year championship drought
Remembering 2016, Part 6: Green Archers shoots down Blue Eagles to break a tie with their bitter rival