Clippers-Mavericks: Los Angeles facing overwhelming odds as Luka Doncic, Dallas take 2-0 series lead

Kawhi Leonard is no stranger to 2-0 deficits. He played for the last team to overcome one in a playoff series. His 2019 Toronto Raptors blew a fourth-quarter lead against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals and then got demolished in Game 2. The Bucks pushed them to the absolute brink in Game 3, a double-overtime thriller, but the Raptors staved off the de-facto series clincher. They didn’t lose again in that series, wiping the Bucks out in six, and went on to win the championship.

That’s a precedent that the Clippers are going to have to lean on because otherwise, 2-0 comebacks are extremely rare in the NBA. There have been 426 playoff series in which one team led another 2-0. The team facing that deficit has won only 27 of those series, or roughly 6.3 percent. By comparison, an NBA team is roughly six-and-a-half times likelier to get swept in that position, as there have been 176 sweeps in NBA history.

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