The comeback frontier

For every point in regulation, the largest deficit a team has ever faced and still gone on to win or tie — across 11,352 games with full play-by-play data (1978–2025). Use the toggles to slice by team and possession; hover the chart for exact records. The lighter line is the next-best comeback where the record is a lone game; the dashed line is an unconditional ceiling — the largest deficit ever reached at that point, whether or not the losing team came back.

Team
Possession
Showing: Any team, any possession
Time Max deficit overcome Scores Games matching record Record game

The final two minutes, second by second

The same data, zoomed into the last 120 seconds of regulation — where a 30-second bucket would have shown only 4 points. Time reads as a countdown, the way the game clock does.