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Horry. No Spur had to be anywhere near that gutsy during this run.
Horry's game 5
Kawhi's game 3
tie
Since it's the offseason, I decided to include a poll of 8 performances for Spurs playoff history, and we can pick the greatest performance. I'll keep each match-ups poll up for 3 days. Whoever has most votes, advances.
First up we have Robert Horry's amazingly clutch game 5 in 05 against Kawhi's dominant game 3 in the 14' finals. Both were VERY necessary for us to win the le in their respective years.
The tournament:
Robert Horry's game 5 against Detroit
Kawhi's game 3 against Miami in 14'
Duncan's 37/16 in 03 vs Lakers
Tony's 16/18 game against Memphis in 13'
Manu's 24/10 game against Miami in 13'
Tony Parker's 21/4/6 game in game 1 vs Miami (the shot)
Duncan's near Quad double
Ginobili's game 2 in 05 27 points, 7 assists.
Now for the highlights of the 2 games:
Final statline:
Horry: 21 points, game winner, all in the last 15 mins of game
Leonard: 29 points, outplaying LeBron
Horry. No Spur had to be anywhere near that gutsy during this run.
Horry, easily..
That was one of the greatest performances in NBA history, all things considered..
A 34-year old career role player that hadn't shown shot-creating ability in years, yet somehow transformed into a superstar for 2 quarters in the most important NBA game of the year..shooting contested 3s, a legendary and-1 dunk while jumping through a defender, it just felt like he wasn't going to miss, it just didn't make any sense..
Horry and it's not even close. We needed and I mean needed that performance from Horry to win that game. Leonard on the other hand while not bad at all, didn't need to have a game like that in order for us to win that game. That pistons team overall would completely all over last years heat.
Horry's Game 5 is legendary.
Horry. spurs could have won game 3 without kawhi... everybody played well except the 3rd quarter. without Horry we'd have gone down 3-2 and i dont think we win that series
This thread is kind of ridiculous without Duncan's Game 3 vs LA in 1999, Duncan's Game 2 vs LA in 2001, Duncan's Game 1 vs New Jersey in 2003, Duncan's Game 7 vs Dallas in 2006, or Duncan's Game 1 vs Phoenix in 2008. Also Ginobili's Game 5 vs Seattle in 2005 should be on this list.
In theory, it's a tournament, so this could be just one matchup.
all the tourney "entries" are in the OP
Noted and retracted.
Duncan 37/16 Game 6 vs LA wins this all in a landslide, even if we counted the other games I nominated.
This was the real le clinching game and it was in Los Angeles against the 3x defending champs, and Tim just put the team on his back and took them to the le that night. The Dallas and New Jersey series were formalities after eliminating LA, who would have won the le that year easily had they gotten through the Spurs.
Horry's explosion was hands down the better of the two.
He scored 0 points in the first 35:57 of the game before hitting a 3 with 3 seconds remaining in the 3rd.
He proceeded to score 18 points in the final 17 minutes of the game off the bench. 21 points in the final 17:03 of the game.
Also he threw down that dunk of R.I.P Hamilton.
I missed the 99 and 03 le teams and didn't start watching the Spurs consistently until 05' but that was the best I've seen Duncan play, he was scary,. 12-24 FG, 17-23 FT, 41 pts, 15 rebs., 6 asts, and 3 blks.
The 08' game was another great one though.
Nether are quite worthy of the tourney but Diaw's & Duncan's game 6 vs OKC were pretty special
Diaw-8-14 FG, 3-6 3PT, 7-10 FT, 26 points off the bench
Duncan-6-14 FG, 19 points, 16 rebounds 7 points in overtime
Ahh sorry, I've gotta disagree with comments like this saying that the Spurs would have won the game without Kawhi. I'm not so sure about that being the case at all.
Who would have guarded Lebron, who would have stopped Lebron from scoring 50 out there, who would have made Lebron work on the defensive end of the court? Kawhi was huge in games 3, 4 and 5 against one of, if not the best player in the world. I'm not going to comment on who who's performance was better between Horry and Kawhi, but completely discrediting Kawhi and saying the Spurs would have won without him is almost ridiculous IMO.
Horry's 3 pointer for sure.
The Pistons that year were more balanced and were tough as nails mentally and physically.
No Horry the Pistons win in 6 that year .....
Miami this year laid down and died like an old dog .... we gifted them their only win in the finals.
Horry. Also agree with what BB said.
I'll be the odd one out and voice why I voted for Kawhi's Game 3.
Kawhi's performance offensively was one thing, but he also defended the best player in the world, and outscored him. It reminded me of something Bill Walton said about Tim Duncan against the Lakers in the '03 series: I don't remember the exact quote, but paraphrasing what he said was that when one of your players is taking it to the other team's best player, you feel far more confident about you being able to beat your man (if Duncan can take Shaq, I can take Slava Medvedenko, etc.). That's what Kawhi did to LeBron in that game and the subsequent games. Though all of the Spurs played well in that game, it was Kawhi who really put them over the top.
Course, Horry's game 5 was awesome too. It was a difficult choice.
^ this
We don't beat the Pistons in 2005 without Horry. Period.
Tough choice tbh....
I'll go with Horry becuase his performance came out of left field. Nobody really expected it. Didn't he have a bum shoulder that game also???
Well put. Completely agree.
The one he made that dunk with. Frankly, if somebody wanted to make a case for why Horry should be in the hall of fame, that game is probably exhibit A of a career filled with playoff heroics.
& one Bithces!!!
I'll go with Horry too
nice idea op btw
Horry by far..
If you consider expectations, I don't think anyone expected Horry to play the way he did after being mediocre the whole series and old as . Leonard on the other hand was a potential MVP in 2013. I don't think it's close...In terms, of importance of winning that particular game it's probably close, but Horry's game was so much more...
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