Rank the hardest opponents we've played

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Originally Posted by MadDog73

God, can any of you people even read?!?

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Oh shit...I feel stupid, gotta admit :depressed

BUT---with that said, I have to say the more intriguing question is who was our toughest playoff competition/loss. I still think it was the Mavs last year.

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Originally Posted by MrChug

Oh shit...I feel stupid, gotta admit :depressed

BUT---with that said, I have to say the more intriguing question is who was our toughest playoff competition/loss. I still think it was the Mavs last year.

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Are you seriously putting the 06 Mavs ahead of the Shaq/Kobe Lakers, or by "toughest" do you mean hardest to stomach? True, they're the only two teams to send Tim Duncan fishing.

I think you have to consider Detroit as the toughest since they took the Spurs to seven games. After them, I think the 03 Lakers come to mind just for the fact that it was such a huge monkey on the franchise's back.

Okay, I know this is off the original topic, but since some people are chiming in with other seasons, I'll offer my two cents - if you are talking about the toughest opponent and/or most humiliating playoff defeat in franchise history, that's easy:

Lakers 2001.

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Originally Posted by GrandeDavid

Okay, I know this is off the original topic, but since some people are chiming in with other seasons, I'll offer my two cents - if you are talking about the toughest opponent and/or most humiliating playoff defeat in franchise history, that's easy:

Lakers 2001.

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Yeah it's easy and too depressing for a thread. But that would look something like this:

2001 lakers
95 Rockets
06 Mavs
2002 Lakers
some of the mid 90s Jazz

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Originally Posted by SilverPlayer

Yeah it's easy and too depressing for a thread. But that would look something like this:

2001 lakers
95 Rockets
06 Mavs
2002 Lakers
some of the mid 90s Jazz

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Good take, but the only disagreement I might have is with the 2002 Lakers series. The Lakers that season were strong favorites with home court. The Spurs had Parker as a rookie to support Tim and not much else. Yes, the Spurs got a split in LA to start, but they really didn't stand a chance against a still young and agile enough Shaquille O'Neal, not to mention Kobe Bryant.

Also, you should consider the 91 series against Golden State. The year prior the Spurs had cinderelled their way to a spectacular turnaround and near conference semifinals victory. Many Spurs fans thought championships would be soon to come...then came next season's ugly 1-3 letdown against Run TMC and Golden State.

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Originally Posted by GrandeDavid

Good take, but the only disagreement I might have is with the 2002 Lakers series. The Lakers that season were strong favorites with home court. The Spurs had Parker as a rookie to support Tim and not much else. Yes, the Spurs got a split in LA to start, but they really didn't stand a chance against a still young and agile enough Shaquille O'Neal, not to mention Kobe Bryant.

Also, you should consider the 91 series against Golden State. The year prior the Spurs had cinderelled their way to a spectacular turnaround and near conference semifinals victory. Many Spurs fans thought championships would be soon to come...then came next season's ugly 1-3 letdown against Run TMC and Golden State.

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The 2002 Lakers still might have handled any team we threw at them, but you've got a point. And those three years kind of blur together as being years we endured unending humiliation at their hands, which incidentally is why I ranked them as the "toughest" opponent we've beaten in our championship runs over the '05 Pistons. In other words I may be giving the Lakers more credit than they deserve because beating them was just so huge.

And you're right about the 91 series, but my history with the spurs doesn't go quite that far back. I will have to trust the older ( and wiser? or is it just more senile?) fans to rank previous era defeats.