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^ this, tbh
You can't go just by that because the Spurs teams were all different.
^ this, tbh
Easily 2005 Pistons. If it wasn't for Robert Horry basically, that le was theirs.
Never been more worried about a finals opponent (until 2013, obviously) than that year.
Maybe the Spurs won't have too much trouble against the Thunder, but it's always been the the Refs that have always been the Thunder's biggest players. If they smell blood next year, they'll go for the jugular. They tried every single game of this year
Let's just look at this year 2014:
Round 1: Spurs defeat 2011 champion Mavericks
Round 2: Spurs defeat annual playoff team who just crushed the Rockets in the Blazers
Round 3: Spurs defeat 2012 WC champion Thunder
Round 4: Spurs defeat b2b champion Heat
Spurs literally defeat every team that appeared in or won the Finals over the previous 3 years (besides themselves) enroute to le, and STOMPED most of them at that. Arguably most impressive run ever.
Yeah, and they went through the two best players in the league, James and Durant. No one can question this le. All those "asterisk"-claiming bas s can go themselves.
The question was : which was the greatest team the Spurs went through? We've me tough match-ups because of particular individuals, but Detroit has my abiding respect as the only real team that we happened to have the fortune of defeating. The 2003 Lakers are second, but they were already imploding when we destroyed them.
It seemed like M. Miller hit every timely 3 last year. Can't say the same for Lewis. Also helped we didn't have defensive sieve GNeal out there. I don't give 2014 Heat that much credit. They weren't as good as last year especially defensively.
Last edited by therealtruth; 07-02-2014 at 05:52 AM.
2003 Lakers
2005 Pistons
OKC was the toughest opponent for the Spurs this year but I think the biggest challenge was mental. After losing in 2012, the Spurs' braintrust went to work and figured out how to beat OKC. They didn't have much regular season success but that's ok, it didn't tell the whole story. We have the advantage on them now - both mentally and match-up wise. OKC's bench is barren and they will need to develop it or get FA's that can help.
They were also imploding in 2001 and managed to run off a 15-1 playoffs.
03 Lakers or 05 pistons, could go either way.
People also forget Ginobili was injured in the middle of the series with a deep thigh bruise that made him practically lead footed for the middle games Detriot ran away with.
Healthy Manu + healthy Duncan = Spurs in 5 or 6, tops.
"We dont give them no respect!...None"
lol Garbage Bag Cape
lol Knicks FO
Indeed; got hurt really early in Game 3. I really loved those Pistons teams, but they ran a 7 man rotation, with the 7th man (Hunter) hardly playing. Their lack of depth murdered them in the third quarter of Game 7 when both Wallaces and McDyess got in foul trouble and they had to guard Duncan with Tayshaun Prince for about 3 minutes. If that was the 04 team they could have brought Okur or Williamson in to bang with Duncan for a few minutes, but those guys were gone. An interesting matchup would be a healthy 05 Spurs team against the 04 Pistons that destroyed the league after trading for Rasheed. That 04 team got so much from its starting lineup and then had pretty crazy depth too. Not sure which way that matchup would have gone, as the 05 Spurs were a monster.
But in all seriousness, those Dallas teams we managed to get by all those years were far and away the best teams we faced. They had like 3 or 4 stars each and were well coached. They also seemed to win like 60 games every season and had Dirk in his prime.
The only one of those Dallas teams the Spurs went through to a le was 03, and they were horribly coached. I remember they actually got better when Nowitzki got injured in Game 3 because it forced Nelson to guard Duncan with Najera. No clue why he thought guarding Duncan with Nowitzki in single coverage was a good idea.
2005 Pistons
2005 Pistons repeat against anyone but us that year..
That's pretty obvious since Phoenix would have never been able to bang with them. The Wallaces would have eaten Stoudemire alive.
Pretty much this. Emphasis on "dysfunctional for the '03 Lakers.
Duncan started the '05 post season on two bum ankles but he was healthy by the time the Finals came.
For more interesting takes, this should be renamed best teat we went through in years we won and should've won the le (i.e. '04, '06, '12 and '13).
No he didn't and no he wasn't. He started the 05 postseason on one bum ankle from a RS game in Detroit and injured the other one in Game 6 in Seattle (remember the fans cheering his injury as he was on the ground?).
Tim wasn't even close to healthy in the Finals. I remember Mic e Tafoya reporting that both his ankles were extremely painful by fourth quarters that entire series but that Duncan said 'it is what it is'. Go back and watch that Finals. Those ankles are why Duncan went 1-6 from the line in the fourth quarter of Game 5, why his shots were coming up short. That's not the fourth quarter Tim Duncan we have known for so long.
2003 LAL and not even debatable-2 absolute monster stars in prime plus a deep and well coached team
He was healthy enough when the Finals started. A 26-19 double-double in Game 5 isn't indicative of ankles that were bothering him. And his free throw wows also weren't from bad ankles. Tim was a much worse free throw shooter back then. Especially in 4th Quarters whether he was healthy or not both in RS and playoffs. Game 5 wasn't that unique in that respect. What I remember about Seattle Game 6 was Pop saying Duncan's ankle would be "jelly" or something like that. Also, one of this ankle stuff negates the fact that Duncan still put up good up numbers against Rasheed Wallace who had always defended him well.
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