What Happened the Last Time the Road Team Won Each of the First Three Games in the NBA Finals?

Mon, Jun 15, 2026
by CapperTek

The San Antonio Spurs are officially alive in the 2026 NBA Finals. After dropping each of the first two games on home turf, their dream of being crowned champion hung by a thread as they headed to the Big Apple, staring down the barrel. Luckily, Victor Wembanyama knew the stakes.

Spurs Keep Road Trend Going in the Big Apple

The French phenom reeled off 32 points as he dragged his side kicking and screaming to a 111-105 win against the Knicks in Madison Square Garden. They have reduced their arrears and halved the deficit after Jalen Brunson and Co. picked up back-to-back upset wins in Texas to pull out a 2-0 lead to start the Finals. Now, however, online betting sites make it anyone's guess as to who will end up champion.

The latest NBA betting at Bovada odds still position Wemby's Spurs as a narrow +150 underdog to complete the comeback, but those odds are far shorter than the +400 they were at 2-0. The Knicks remain the favorites at -180, but they will be looking on nervously as they know San Antonio is intent on chasing them down.

But the most shocking thing about the first three games of the 2026 Finals is that all three games have been won by the road team, rendering home-field advantage as an absolute myth. It's the first time since 1993 that the championship series has begun in such fashion. But what happened back then? Let's take a look.

Setting the Stage

Chicago arrived at the 1993 Finals as two-time defending champions, chasing something that hadn't been done since Bill Russell was terrorizing every other franchise in the league. No team had won three consecutive NBA titles since the Boston Celtics' dynasty of the 1960s — a fact that hung over the Bulls' entire season like an unanswered question. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen had both played for the Dream Team in Barcelona the previous summer with almost no rest before returning to an 82-game grind, yet Chicago still went 57-25, finishing second in the Eastern Conference.

Their playoff run had its own drama before they ever reached the Finals. They swept Atlanta, swept Cleveland, then fell 2-0 to the top-seeded Knicks in the conference finals before rallying to win in six — a series defined by Pippen's extraordinary sequence in Game 5 at MSG, swatting away multiple Charles Smith basket attempts in the final seconds to preserve a pivotal road win. A team that could do that to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden wasn't easily rattled.

Phoenix had engineered one of the most dramatic single-season transformations the league had ever seen. Superstar Charles Barkley promptly arrived from Philadelphia, Paul Westphal began his tenure as head coach, and the franchise moved into the brand-new America West Arena. What followed was staggering: a franchise-record 62 wins, Barkley claiming the regular season MVP, and the Suns owning the best record in basketball. But there was no bigger test than facing the Bulls under the bright lights, and the opening games on home turf proved it.

Road Dominance

Game 1 opened with an act of theatrical nerve. Before tip-off, Phoenix attempted to rile up the star-studded Bulls as they walked out to an introduction deliberately mirroring Chicago's famous Sirius-themed presentation. Despite those efforts, MJ and Co. were unfazed. He proceeded to drop 31 points as Chicago led from the opening quarter, quelling every Suns rally in a composed 100-92 win on enemy territory.

Game 2 was grander theater entirely. Jordan and Barkley each scored 42 points — only the second time in Finals history that opposing players had both eclipsed 40 in the same game — MJ with his signature mid-range precision and slashing drives to the painted area, Barkley with a sledgehammer approach that bullied defenders into bad positions. Pippen produced a triple-double of 15 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 assists while Kevin Johnson fouled out late. And when Danny Ainge launched a potential game-tying three in the final seconds, Pippen's block was as clean as it gets — a 111-108 Chicago win that made Phoenix the first team in Finals history to surrender home-court advantage in each of the first two games of a series.

Then came Game 3, transported to the United Center, and the Suns produced one of the most extraordinary performances in Finals history. Chicago's Horace Grant hit a game-tying three-point play with 1:33 remaining in regulation. Tom Chambers tied it again in the first overtime. Dan Majerle buried a shot with 3.2 seconds remaining in the second overtime to force a third period — the first triple-overtime Finals game since 1976, a year in which Westphal himself had been on the court.

In that third overtime, Majerle finished with 28 points, Kevin Johnson added 25, and Phoenix survived 129-121. The Suns had won on the road. The series was alive.

What Happened Next?

Is there a more instructive template for the 2026 Knicks than how the 1993 Bulls responded to losing Game 3 on their own floor? Jordan killed the Suns' momentum in approximately 48 minutes. Back in Chicago for Game 4, he scored 55 points — shooting 57 percent from the field — becoming just the fifth player in history to reach 50 in a Finals game. Barkley countered heroically with a 32-point triple-double, Johnson added 19, but heroism without a result is simply effort; the Bulls won 111-105, restoring their 3-1 series lead and draining every ounce of oxygen the Game 3 victory had provided.

Game 5 gave Phoenix one last credible push. Barkley and Johnson kept them competitive, Jordan poured in 41 points — his third consecutive 40-point outing — yet this time Chicago's efficiency faltered enough for the Suns to win 108-98 and reduce the deficit to 3-2.

Game 6 produced the Finals' defining image, and it didn't belong to Jordan. Chicago led 87-79 after three quarters before going cold — three shot-clock violations in the opening six minutes of the fourth quarter, the kind of collapse that opens doors for desperate teams. Phoenix clawed ahead 98-94 with America West Arena roaring. Then Jordan drove before feeding Pippen, who pushed toward the rim before finding Horace Grant. He then spotted John Paxson standing alone on the left wing and delivered the pass of his career. Paxson buried the three-pointer with 3.9 seconds remaining, turning a two-point deficit into a 99-98 lead.

Grant swatted away Phoenix's final desperation attempt, and the three-peat was complete. Jordan averaged a Finals record 41 points per game and became the first player in history to win three consecutive Finals MVP awards.