The following is the list of teams that have overcome 3–1 series deficits mainly concerning North American professional sports within a best-of-seven series. The listed teams won three consecutive games after being down three games to one. Unsuccessful comebacks are also listed, in which teams evened a series after being behind 3–1, then lost the final game of the series.
The best-of-seven playoff structure is common in North American professional sports, particularly in the sports of baseball, basketball, and ice hockey, and prominently in three of the major North American professional sports leagues: Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League.
There are also some intermediate North American leagues below the major league level that use the best-of-seven format, such as hockey's Calder Cup. The format is also used outside of North America, including the Taiwan Series baseball tournament, the final round of the Japan Series, the Chinese, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Turkish basketball leagues, and later rounds of the Gagarin Cup of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) based in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and China.
All 3–1 deficit comebacks in a seven-game series involve winning three straight elimination games, including a winner-take-all Game 7. Longer series of this nature are almost always structured as single-elimination knockout tournaments, so one more loss ends playoff contention for the losing side.
This is similar to a comeback from a 2–0 series deficit in a best-of-five series, which also requires winning three straight games.
Implicit in overcoming a 3–1 series deficit are all teams that have overcome a 3–0 series deficit. These are noted in the series comment cells and — lacking an explicit column in the tabular format — can be identified with a "3–0".
Background Three major North American professional sports leagues have playoff series that can reach a seventh game: Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL). In the history of these leagues, teams that were down 3–1 in a series have come back to win the series 59 times; 14 times in MLB, 15 times in the NBA, and 31 times in the NHL. The most recent instance was accomplished by the Detroit Pistons of the NBA in the 2026 NBA playoffs.
There have been three instances of a team coming back from a 3–1 deficit twice in the same postseason, occurring once each in the MLB, NBA, and NHL. The most recent instance was by the Denver Nuggets in the 2020 NBA playoffs. The other two instances occurred by the Kansas City Royals in the 1985 MLB postseason (the only instance where that team also won the championship) and the Minnesota Wild in the 2003 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Within the World Hockey Association and American Basketball Association, which each merged with the NHL and NBA, respectively, only one team came back from a 3–1 deficit: the Indiana Pacers came back to defeat the Kentucky Colonels in Eastern Division Semifinals of the 1969 ABA Playoffs. The WHA had just one team force a game seven after being down 3–1 with the Quarterfinals in the 1976 WHA playoffs; the Indianapolis Racers forced game seven but lost to the New England Whalers.
Key Indicates the team that had home advantageIndicates series in the championship roundEventual championIndicates the series winner won (or went on to win) the championship
Major League Baseball Successful comebacks MLB teams have overcome 3–1 deficits 14 times (including 1 when trailing 3–0), 6 of which occurred in the World Series. This does not count the 1903 World Series, during which the Boston Americans (or Puritans, or Pilgrims, depending on the source, and later known as the Red Sox) came back from a 3–1 deficit to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5 games to 3, as that was a best-of-9 series. The most recent instance was accomplished by the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2020 NLCS. The Boston Red Sox have the most 3–1 comebacks, with 3. The St. Louis Cardinals have the most blown 3–1 leads, with 4.