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If you felt some deja vu watching the Toronto Blue Jays come back from an 0-2 deficit deep in the playoffs, that’s only natural.
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After all, though it’s a pretty rare occurrence in professional sports to see a team rally like that when facing those stakes, Canadian sports fans saw it happen not too long ago.
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The Toronto Raptors went on a magical run in the spring of 2019, crushing the Orlando Magic in Round 1 before an epic conference semifinal against the Philadelphia 76ers (which even saw the Raptors rally from a 2-1 series deficit).
You might recall how that one ended: Kawhi Leonard had his Joe Carter moment (or about as close as you can come in basketball to Carter’s 1993 walkoff World Series winner), eliminating the Sixers with a Game 7 buzzer-beater that bounced around the rim four times before dropping.
As if that wasn’t odd enough (series-winning shots don’t happen as often as you’d think), the next round was far stranger.
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Milwaukee had been the only team to win more games than Toronto that season, earning home-court advantage for the Bucks and they took full advantage, winning a tight first game and then laying a beatdown on the Raptors in Game 2.
The vibes in Toronto were similar to how they were earlier this month when the Seattle Mariners had taken a commanding 2-0 American League Championship Series lead, on the road no less.
Few thought a comeback was possible. To make matters worse, the Raptors had led all the way at home in Game 3, only to see Milwaukee battle back to force overtime after Pascal Siakam missed a pair of free throws in the final 10 seconds and Kyle Lowry and Norman Powell had both fouled out.
It felt over because of all of that, with momentum forcibly swinging back to the team that had originally seized control of the series, kind of like when Seattle won Game 5 last week to re-claim the lead in the ALCS.
But the Raptors pulled that one out, even though Milwaukee forced a second overtime.
Perhaps the stoicism of Leonard had paid off. After the Raptors lost Game 2 in Wisconsin, he had been asked: “Where do you go from here?” and matter-of-factly replied: “I’m going to Toronto for Game 3.”
Only 20 teams in NBA history had come back from an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-seven at that point, but the Raptors pulled it off.
Six years later, the Jays also did it, perhaps even more improbably, since they had to mount the comeback on the road instead of at home as the Raptors had done.
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