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2005 Pistons for sure
I think all of their starters were all stars that year, and that bench was so solid with Hunter running the second team
1999 Trailblazers (35 and 15 regular season, veteran team, victim of the "Memorial Day Miracle", would push Shaq-Kobe Lakers to 7 games next year)
2003 Mavs (60 and 22 regular season, first 60 win team of the Dirk era)
2003 Lakers (50 and 32 regular season, 3 time defending champs going for a fourth, Spurs win in 6)
2003 Nets (49 and 33 regular season, 2 time defending Eastern Conference Champs, Jason Kidd and RJ! (Yes, RJ!) in his prime).
2005 Suns (62-20 regular season, best of the Amar'e/Nash Suns. Spurs took them down in 5 games)
2005 Pistons (54 and 28 regular season, defending champs who had also defeated the Shaq-Kobe Lakers the previous year, Spurs win in 7 hard fought games)
2007 Suns (61 and 21 regular season, biggest threat that year after the Mavs choked in the first round)
2014 Thunder (59 and 23 regular season, second best record in the NBA, had beaten the Spurs 4-0 in the regular season, and backdoor swept them in 2012)
2014 Heat (54 and 28 regular season, 2 time defending champs, had beaten the Spurs in the 2013 Finals, Heat making their 4th consecutive finals appearance.)
A team I missed?
2005 Pistons for sure
I think all of their starters were all stars that year, and that bench was so solid with Hunter running the second team
Tough call between 2014 Heat and 2003 Lakers
I think you have to give the 2014 Thunder some credit. I was literally at the edge of my seat in game 6. Ibaka dominated the paint for all but the final 3-4 Duncan possessions at the end of the game. I don't see how the 2014 Heat can be mentioned..regular season accomplishments aside, that should have been a sweep.
2005 Pistons were also beast. Who knows what would have happened without Horry.
They didn't have Mike Miller to bail them out time after time. What a terrible move in hindsight tbh
The 2003 Lakers were bored. They had just won 3 straight Championships and didn't care.
The 2005 Pistons were very good, but were just full of role players.
The answer is easily the 2014 Thunder. They were no question the 2nd best team in the NBA this year (they had the 2nd best record as well). They have 2 SUPERSTARS in Westbrook and Durant, the best defender in the league in Ibaka, and a talented, if relatively thin, bench (Adams, Jackson, Fisher, Butler). We were the only team that was going to stop them this year, and if Ibaka wasn't hurt the first 2 games, then we might never have gotten past them.
I don't know about that. The Mavs team took them to seven games.
2005 Pistons by a mile
Spurs smoked OKC three times. We beat Pistons only once by blowout and they blew us out twice. We beat both Pistons and Thunder in OT once, but our close out game was a close game against Detroit at home and we went 7 games...so Pistons are the toughest team for us
Ibaka was robbed of the DPOY. Ten times more the presence on D than Noah is. Noah wouldn't even come close to intimidating Parker.
Not surprising. Look how many times Bowen and TD didn't get it.
Bowen and TD didn't get the DPOY exactly because of players like Ibaka who is a great weakside shotblocker but nothing special as a defender. Blocks are overrated.
03 Lakers. and if Horry hit that shot in game 5 we could be singing a different tune tbh
You left off the 1999 Lakers. They should at least be in the poll.
But anyway, my vote goes to the 2005 Pistons. They took us to the 4th quarter of game 7 in the Finals.
2005 Pistons. In alternate universe, 2013 Heat come a close second.
I'd say
2003 Lakers
99 Trailblazers
14 Heat
I would agree with the first two.
2003 Lakers
1999 Blazers
2005 Pistons
2014 Mavs
2014 Thunder
2014 Heat
In that order.
I can see how someone would put in a vote for the 2005 Pistons. They were the defending champs and pushed SA to 7 games. Although this poll is based on opinions (which believe it or not can be very ridiculous), though, I have to think that you'd be insane to vote for anyone other than them, or the team with my vote, the 2003 Lakers. Voting for other teams makes me question how much basketball one actually watches....
The 2003 Lakers had just THRASHED San Antonio the last two years in the playoffs to the tune of a sweep and a 4-1 series. 8-1 over the last two series. They had two of the top 5 players in the league, arguably the greatest NBA coach of all time in Phil and had just come off of a THREE-PEAT! Bored or not, you cannot ignore the record. They even went on the next year to once again beat San Antonio in the 2004 Playoffs. I'm sure I don't need to remind too many of the members of this board of .4....
The Shaq/Kobe/Phil Lakers have already gone down as one of the great teams of all time. Pop said it best when he compared them breaking up to the breakup of the Soviet Union. No other team truly gave SA the trouble that LA did in the last 15 years in the playoffs. Look at it this way....10 Championships between them since 1999. That's 10 out of the last 15 champions. Five and five. The Lakers also made it to 2 other finals. No offense, but to me choosing another team would be shortchanging what the Lakers were able to accomplish. I can understand the Silver and Black blinders that many in here have on. Most long time Spurs fans have a healthy hatred of the Purple and Gold. They and the Spurs are the only two teams that have any claim to the "Best Post Jordan Team" le. Not even the Heat of the last 4 years comes close.
Seeing San Antonio beat them in game six, with Kobe and Fish crying on the sideline was one of my favorite Spurs moments....right up there with the Memorial Day Miracle. Epic, epic defeat of a great team.
The 2005 Pistons were the best team, but they just weren't that appealling to watch. Same could be said about the Spurs style of play back then.
I've always said the "Spurs are boring" label came from their matchups in the Finals. Because the Spurs finally had a two-time champion, and media darling as an opponent, one they crushed on the biggest stage, they're finally getting their due. Can you imagine if the Lakers and Spurs played in different conferences during the Shaq/Kobe years? We'd probably have 7-10 years of Lakers/Spurs Finals.
Yeah, but the le of the thread says the greatest team the Spurs had to go through to win a championship and the 2003 Lakers weren't it. LA got their collective asses kicked by 25+ on their homecourt in the closeout game by Duncan and the new blood who weren't even close to their primes yet. That doesn't say "great" to me. Yeah, LA 3-peated and all but they never truly had to go through a good Eastern Conference opponent in the Finals. They had to face two decent playoff teams max and then it was cupcake compe ion in the Finals with the over the hill Pacers, the one man show Sixers, and that godawful Nets team. The Lakers were also fortunate Duncan never had any true veteran perimeter talent around him in 2001 and 2002. The closest thing the Spurs had had to a decent 2nd option talent-wise was Derek Anderson who was taken out early in the 2001 playoffs by a Juwan Howard cheapshot.
Meanwhile the Pistons were the defending champs who gave the 2005 Spurs (the best and most seasoned Spurs team to this day imo) all they could handle. Detroit lost a heartbreaker in Game 5 on their home floor but didn't even look close to folding like the rest of the primadonna teams on this list. Unlike the Lakers the Pistons came back strong and took Game 6 in San Antonio and then had Spurs fans biting their nails more than Lebron when they took Game 7 down to the final minute. The Spurs have never had a greater challenge enroute to a le than the Pistons.
This x 100000
The '05 Pistons seemed to be the one series that truly could have gone either way. I know if the '03 Lakers won G5 it could have put the Spurs away as well, but the blowout in G6 exposed the lack of composure that Lakers team had.
The '05 Pistons series would probably kill me if I saw it live. Games 3-4 were blowouts, Spurs barely squeaked by in G5, Pistons proved they could win on the road in G6, and in G7 the game was tied entering the fourth quarter. The only thing that could have come close in terms of stress would probably be the 2013 Finals if the Spurs had won Game 7.
I firmly believe the '05 Pistons could have defeated any of the teams you mentioned. In fact, I'd go as far as saying the Pistons deserved to be champs in '05 as much as Ginobili deserved Finals MVP.
Pistons is the best team the Spurs ever played against tbh
The case for the 2003 Lakers (especially after the complete domination the previous two years of San Antonio) is very, very easy to make over any other team during SA's 5 runs. While the Spurs put it together very, very well in LA for game 6 and crushed them there, LA was one Horry shot away from changing the tone of that series in game 5, just like Fisher's shot the next year changed the tone in 2004. Win game 5....you win the series. All you have to do is look at game 6 in 2004 for proof of that. Fisher's shot deflated San Antonio, just like Horry's miss deflated LA in 2003. LA came back and beat SA the very next year. Considering the battles these two teams waged with each other from 1999 to the end of the Shaq/Kobe team, it's just too easy to pick LA. For YEARS the winner of that series was considered the favorite to win in the Finals. It was truly an amazing thing to watch.
Regarding the Eastern Conference comment....seriously, can you really compare that conference to the West in the post Jordan era? Who cares who the Eastern opponent was for the winners of the West. Put Miami in the West and they don't make it to 4 straight finals. There's a good chance that Detroit doesn't make it to two, either. The fact that any team makes it through the gauntlet of Western Conference teams (which includes 11 NBA champions) basically tells me that the REAL NBA championship was played out West most years in the NBA. It was sort of like the 90's NFC Championship games. The Lakers went through the Spurs as well as two juggernaut teams in Sacramento and Portland to win their 3 les....teams that all would have owned the East. That's impressive, especially considering the longevity.
I give the Pistons their props...they did win one and they pushed SA to game 7, but do we hinge everything on that fact? Dallas took SA to a game 7 this year. Does that mean they were the best team the Spurs played in the playoffs? I doubt you'd put them ahead of the Thunder or Heat. I sure as wouldn't. Look at the total picture, the multiple series played and the championships won. The 2003 defeat of the three time defending champs was very, very special.
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