You're Down 3-0, You've Automatically Lost - What Should You Do For Game 4?

[Sane]

Basically you ask this same question in the locker room and whoever isn't 100% bought into winning the next game, you leave them out of the game and dump them in the summer. Can't go far with people who can't stay in the now.

[SNPA]

Because no team in NBA history has ever recovered losing three games straight from the start, a 3-0 lead is considered an automatic series victory. Here comes Game 4, the technicality game as the series is a best four out of seven.

You can try and win Game 4, but all it does is imply that the leading team gave the game away as a gift, a free game as I like to call it. No matter, they'll lose in five. But what if the losing team stuns in Game 5, no worries, they'll lose in 6. And if the leading team lets six slip away, Hakuna Matata, there is always a Game 7, to which only four teams in NBA history have managed to draw, and in all four instances the attempted comeback falls flat. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, no matter who you have, once you're down 3-0 you've automatically lost. There is nothing you can do, except to accept defeat by losing the series and trying again next year.

So why bother even having a Game 4? Revise the playoff standards so that a 3-0 lead in best of seven means an automatic win like Bill Simmons once suggested. Why bother indeed? It's not as if 3-0 led Game 4s all ended horribly akin to a forfeit. Look at the 2011 Lakers who were shamed by the Mavericks, especially after Andrew Bynum's clothesline to J.J. Barea. Most of the time, the Game 4 is either a take-it-easy game like the 2017 NBA Finals where Cavaliers got a free game on their home floor, followed by a business-clinching Game 5 for the Warriors. Or it can be a see-you-next-season like last year's 1st round where Wolves stole Game 4 to prevent a Nuggets sweep, and it translated into actual success just recently.

Let's look back at all the 3-0 leads, specifically Game 4s. Since no team will ever come back from down 3-0, what should the losing team do in those situations? Do they try and extend the series, or does it become a glorified scrimmage that will hopefully translate better for them next season? Which was your favorite 3-0 led Game 4s?

In other words, what can the losing team do so that their impending elimination off a 3-0 deficit doesn't feel deflating?

Why not have a mercy rule? Or a tap out?

[Ito]

No body had come back from 3-1 and won either before

Cavs did against the Warriors.

Before it happened

[hauntedcomputer]

If I am the Wolves, I force feed KAT 50 shots so his stats are good enough to trade.

Then I hope Luka punches ANT in the nuts and gets suspended.

Then hope Kyrie decides a distant comet contains a mystical scroll that compels him to move to the Antarctic and await The Arrival.

All while stashing some excellent, excellent bud in my travel bag for the flight to Cancun.

[AleksandarN]

Kat knows what he has to do

[hugepatsfan]

Literally just last year the Celtics were down 3-0 and forced a game 7…

[Hans1984]

Try to win the game.