There's impossible and then there's the feat the the Denver Nuggets just pulled off. The Nuggets are the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit twice in the same postseason. They knocked off the Utah Jazz by winning three straight games and did it again to the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference semifinals.
Historically, teams are 13-244 when falling behind 3-1 in a playoff series. The Nuggets have now won eight games this postseason, and six of those wins have come in elimination games.
Their series against the Clippers really stands out as impressive, though. The Nuggets won the series as +610 underdogs, the biggest upset for any team since the 2012 Philadelphia 76ers lost to the Chicago Bulls (the same series where Derrick Rose first tore his ACL).
In Games 5-7, the Nuggets overcame 16-, 19- and 12-point respective deficits to get their wins. They also closed as +260 dogs in each of them, becoming the first team to win three such consecutive postseason games. A $100 bettor would have won $952 on the Nuggets' moneyline odds over that span.
Bettors who grabbed their series odds when they were down 3-1 were even more profitable:
A bettor at @WilliamHillUS bet on the Nuggets to win the series against the Clippers when they were down 3-1.
If Denver wins tonight, his $1,000 bet nets $20,000.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) September 15, 2020
You can check out the series prices for the Nuggets and Lakers in the Western Conference finals here.
