Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers Beat Two Teams in the Same Geographical Region
Last year, the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series. In their final two playoff series, the Dodgers beat two different teams from the same geographical region. The region was New York as they defeated the Mets in the NLCS and the Yankees in the World Series. That's the first time that's ever happened in MLB postseason history (beating two teams from the same geographical region in the same playoff run). If it weren't for Madison Bumgarner, the Kansas City Royals would have pulled off the feat in 2014. The Royals beat the Oakland A's (Bay Area) in the Wild Card Game before losing to the San Francisco Giants in the World Series in seven games.
Has it ever happened in the NFL? Unlike the Royals, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were able to defeat two Bay Area teams in the playoffs. The Buccaneers defeated the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 2002 NFL Playoffs and later defeated the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl. What about basketball? There is only one Bay Area NBA team (Warriors), but there are two different Los Angeles NBA teams (Lakers and Clippers). And unlike their city's Dodgers, they were on the wrong side of the double defeat.
The Phoenix Suns defeated both of them in the 2021 NBA Playoffs and in the 2006 NBA Playoffs. The Utah Jazz defeated the two Los Angeles teams in the 1997 NBA Playoffs. In 2021, the Suns defeated the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in the first round. After sweeping the Denver Nuggets in the second round, the Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers in the third
round (Western Conference Finals). In contrast with the '24 Dodgers and the '02 Buccaneers, the '21 Suns did not win their sports championship. After taking a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals, they were defeated by the Milwaukee Bucks in six games.
Like the '21 Suns, the '97 Jazz lost in the NBA Finals (also in six games) after vanquishing the Clippers and Lakers in earlier rounds. The '06 Suns did not even make it to the NBA Finals. They succumbed to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals after defeating the Lakers and the Clippers in the first two rounds. The Suns nearly didn't make it out of the first round as the late Kobe Bryant's game-winning buzzer-beater in Game 4 put the Lakers up 3-1.