List of teams that have overcome 2–0 series deficits in a best-of-five series
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The following is the list of teams that have overcome 2–0 series deficits in a best-of-five series concerning North American professional sports, otherwise known as a reverse sweep. The listed teams won three consecutive games after being down 2–0 in a best-of-five playoff series. This is similar to a comeback from a 3–1 series deficit in a best-of-seven playoff series, which also requires winning three straight games, but these are not covered here. In addition, 2–0 deficit comebacks in the best-of-seven series are also not covered here.
All 2–0 deficit comebacks in a five-game series involve winning three straight elimination games, finally featuring a double-elimination game five. Longer series of this nature are almost always structured as single-elimination knockout tournaments, so one more loss means losing the series and ending playoff contention for the losing side.
This playoff structure used to be common in North American professional sports, particularly in the sports of baseball, basketball, and ice hockey, but is currently only used by Major League Baseball in North America.
One common comeback scenario is where a heavy favorite digs themselves into a deep hole on early adversity, before reasserting their dominance over a weaker opponent when the chips are down. This explains in part why these comebacks are rare in most sports: powerhouse teams most capable of mounting a comeback don't usually dig themselves into this predicament in the first place.
Additionally, over a longer series, teams adapt to the strengths and weaknesses of their opponent (more so than in regular season play); stronger teams are usually better at making these adjustments, which makes a "Cinderella" comeback by the weaker team that much more difficult to pull off. In team sports where an individual position has the potential for outsize impact (e.g. a starting pitcher in baseball or a goalie in hockey), a comeback can sometimes be leveraged by a weaker team off of a heroic individual performance.