Hardest Championship for the spurs?

[bull62400]

i must say, if the spurs win it all this year it will be well deserved. from the looks of the playoff bracket, if things go as most commentators predict, this might be the hardest championship the spurs will face to date.

1999: no problem, 12 game wnning streak in the playoffs, def. best team.

2003: went through pheonix, lakers(on the decline), and mavericks(dirk injured), and the nets 2nd best team in the east (only 49 wins that year)

2005: past the nuggets, hard battle with the sonics, cruised through the suns (in 5 games), and beat pistons in 7

2007: we meet the denver nuggets who are definately a different team with AI and Melo, 2nd round: the suns better team than 2005, 3rd round the mavericks who are beatable, but mean business and are gaining experience, and lastly finals: may be a revisit with the pistons.

nevermind the finals, the ROAD to the finals: will this be the toughest road spurs will ever face in recent years? what do yall think?!

[SAtown]

Don't be fooled by the 2005 series win over PHX 4-1. Besides game 3, every game was decided by 6 points or less. I don't think it can get any harder than the 05 playoffs.

[rayray2k8]

I say it was the 2005 season. Only because of the detriot series.

[SilverPlayer]

Alternatively if the Warriors were to pull an upset, it would be without a doubt the easiest championship road we have ever faced.

If they are a championship caliber Spurs team Denver and Phoenix will be easy outs, and Dallas will be the only true test.

[dbreiden83080]

We can do it the Spurs are ready. If they win it again and Timmy leads the way he is a top 10 player of all time no doubt.

[ducks]

i think we need to slow down alittle spurs have not won a game yet

i think they can win it all but lets save this thread tell after we win the title

[SpursDynasty]

i must say, if the spurs win it all this year it will be well deserved. from the looks of the playoff bracket, if things go as most commentators predict, this might be the hardest championship the spurs will face to date.

1999: no problem, 12 game wnning streak in the playoffs, def. best team.

2003: went through pheonix, lakers(on the decline), and mavericks(dirk injured), and the nets 2nd best team in the east (only 49 wins that year)

2005: past the nuggets, hard battle with the sonics, cruised through the suns (in 5 games), and beat pistons in 7

2007: we meet the denver nuggets who are definately a different team with AI and Melo, 2nd round: the suns better team than 2005, 3rd round the mavericks who are beatable, but mean business and are gaining experience, and lastly finals: may be a revisit with the pistons.

nevermind the finals, the ROAD to the finals: will this be the toughest road spurs will ever face in recent years? what do yall think?!

The biggest mistake people make is making excuses for the teams that the Spurs beat during their championship runs. The Lakers in 2003 were outplayed by the Spurs, simple as that. Kobe and Shaq were there. That's not a Laker team on the decline. Shaq didn't start declining until post-2004. Even though Miami won a championship last year, I still think Shaq shouldn't have said "This is Dwayne Wade's team" when he arrived in Miami. The most dominant player this decade up until that point (2004), and he takes a backseat to a sophomore player. Kobe, not even close to declining even 4 years later than losing to SA in 2003.

Dirk was injured in 2003, but the Mavericks would likely not have won the championship back then...it was 2006, the Mavericks still hadn't won the championship and likely won't this year.

1999...it's a league without Jordan dominance. Up for grabs. The Spurs happened to step up the most.

The only Finals' this decade that were competitive and were not easy for the winner were 2000 and 2005. The rest of the Finals this decade, the better team won and won easily.

[dbreiden83080]

1999...it's a league without Jordan dominance. Up for grabs. The Spurs happened to step up the most.

\.

I have always thought had MJ come back that the Spurs would have dethroned the Bulls in 99. It was bound to happen eventually and the Bulls in 98 barely escaped a tough 7 game series with the Pacers to get to the finals. Jordan in game 7 did not play great and they were down by 15 pts in the second half. By 99 Jordan had declined just enough that if they got back to the finals with the Spurs great hunger to win that title for David. I say they get it done.

[spurs1990]

1995 Rockets went through a 60 win Jazz club, Barkley-led Phx, MVP DRob Spurs, and Shaq/Nickel combo Magic - all w/o home court.

I'd say the '07 Spurs potential road is slightly below the Rox, and definitely harder than the two previous champs in '03 and '05.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

I think so, especially considering we aren't the favorites this year. And I know some will say "we hardly are the favorites any year" but that's definitely not true. Instead of a big 3, we're gonna need a big 5 to get to where we want to be.

[SpursDynasty]

The "favorite usually doesn't win the championship:

2003 - Lakers were favored to 4-peat, Spurs took it instead
2004 - Lakers had Malone/Bryant/O'Neal/Payton, heavily hyped all year long by the media to win the championship, then fell 4-1 in the Finals to Detroit
2005 - I don't remember who was favored to win it this year, but it certainly wasn't SA, who won it in 7
2006 - The Pistons were the favorite all season long (winning 64 games), up until Dallas beat SA and Miami beat Detroit in the 2nd round, then Dallas became the favorite before falling 4-2 in the Finals

I'll be surprised if Dallas makes it back to the Finals. If they do, don't forget last year's handling of Dallas by Dwayne and Alonzo. They're still there.

[johngateswhiteley]

easiest, especially if we face _allas.

[TDMVPDPOY]

the 2004 seriously had fisher not hit that shot, and anyone dissappearing i think we couldve won it. i hate all this talk about kg and his wolves ifs buts, wouldve couldve had they beated the lakers, the truth is the spurs met the lakers a round to early as compared to the wolves. had we beat the lakeres, the wolves wouldve got sweep by the spurs.

[jmard5]

This playoffs have a lot of intangibles. I plan to sit back, enjoy the show and cheer for the Spurs.

We can never tell if this is the hardest or easiest until the very last game of the finals.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

the 2004 seriously had fisher not hit that shot, and anyone dissappearing i think we couldve won it. i hate all this talk about kg and his wolves ifs buts, wouldve couldve had they beated the lakers, the truth is the spurs met the lakers a round to early as compared to the wolves. had we beat the lakeres, the wolves wouldve got sweep by the spurs.


if fisher missed .4, we would've dropped game 6 and 7


PJ would've continued to pack the lane and gino and hedo woulda been bricking shots

[pking]

easiest, especially if we face _allas.

Still this, eh?

[ATXSPUR]

05 detroit was better than any team the spurs will play this year.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Any championship team has to overcome obstacles.

I think they were all great accomplishments.

[zocool16]

The "favorite usually doesn't win the championship:


2005 - I don't remember who was favored to win it this year, but it certainly wasn't SA, who won it in 7



you're wrong. San Antonio WAS the favorite

[DarrinS]

2005 was difficult because we faced a defending chamption Pistons team that was good enough to beat a very good Lakers team the year before.


This year, every team in the West has a difficult road to the finals.


This years version of the Nuggets is, without a doubt, better than the verision we saw in 2005.

Nash has better stats than both of his MVP seasons.

Mavs may be even slightly better than they were last year. After all, they now have Finals experience and are hungry to get back there and win it all.

Duncan looks almost as fresh as his rookie season. He has not had any problems with his feet. He is well rested. He is hitting his bank shot with confidence.

[PhxDog]

I thought this article might be germane to your discussion.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6707060


If the WhatIfSports.com computer is right — and it usually is (more on that later) — the Phoenix Suns will defeat the Detroit Pistons to claim the 2007 NBA Championship.

WhatIfSports.com used its acclaimed basketball simulation technology to attempt to forecast the future by simulating the entire 2007 NBA playoffs 10,000 times...


...The Suns and Pistons are followed by Western Conference top seed Dallas (16.7%) and Eastern Conference fourth seed Miami (12.6%) before a drop-off to Utah (6.1%), Cleveland (6.1%) and San Antonio (5.7%).

So yes, because of the immense difficulty of just making it out of the West, the Spurs are less likely to win the championship than the Cavs.

[Phonzie20]

i must say, if the spurs win it all this year it will be well deserved. from the looks of the playoff bracket, if things go as most commentators predict, this might be the hardest championship the spurs will face to date.

1999: no problem, 12 game wnning streak in the playoffs, def. best team.

2003: went through pheonix, lakers(on the decline), and mavericks(dirk injured), and the nets 2nd best team in the east (only 49 wins that year)

2005: past the nuggets, hard battle with the sonics, cruised through the suns (in 5 games), and beat pistons in 7

2007: we meet the denver nuggets who are definately a different team with AI and Melo, 2nd round: the suns better team than 2005, 3rd round the mavericks who are beatable, but mean business and are gaining experience, and lastly finals: may be a revisit with the pistons.

nevermind the finals, the ROAD to the finals: will this be the toughest road spurs will ever face in recent years? what do yall think?!

Well if you really want to break things up let me break it a bit more for you....


You want to really know why you won? refs. manu flailing arms.

[cheguevara]

Well if you really want to break things up let me break it a bit more for you....


You want to really know why you won? refs. manu flailing arms.

I and thought Dallas and Sun fans were the crybabies :bang

[resistanze]

I thought this article might be germane to your discussion.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6707060

Utah? Horrible technology.