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It would be the biggest Finals challenge, but I think the early 2000s Lakers teams were a much tougher out. Lebron is a beast, and may go down as the best ever, but stopping him is a lot easier than stopping prime Shaq.
Yes
No
Stern's Lakers = Stern's Heat, tbh
We not only have to play better than them, but play better decidedly; or the refs will us.
It would be the biggest Finals challenge, but I think the early 2000s Lakers teams were a much tougher out. Lebron is a beast, and may go down as the best ever, but stopping him is a lot easier than stopping prime Shaq.
Shaq/Kobe Lakers are clearly #1, then the Heat, then the Pistons, then the Mavs.
The cHeat are a carefully manufactured team a la the Lakers.
You'll see when the game is played. Miami is notorious for playing extra physical on the perimeter and being allowed to hack, grab, hit those who get into the paint. They're also loaded with floppers and fake tough guys. After this series, most of yall will despise the Heat for all that and rightfully so.
Shaq Kobe Lakers were a different animal, but based on where Tim and Manu are in their career, its probably the most daunting challenge
Everyone remembers how amazing OKC looked last year and Miami just went in and mopped the floor with them in 5. And now they have Ray Allen instead of James Jones and Birdman instead of Joel Anthony. I mean this will easily go down as the greatest team the Spurs have ever beat if they somehow find a way to pull off the upset.
More then the 05 pistons yes
I might even go as far to say upset, miracle whatever if spurs pull this off
Picking all teams in their primes, including Spurs...Miami would be probably third, behind Lakers and Detroit.
If Spurs were in their prime, I don't think this series would be that close. The only thing making this series so tuff for Spurs, is we are definetly not in our prime. Ginobli was a Playoffs Monster back then.
This could be our toughest Playoffs just for that reason.
This thread alone made me want to lower my Spurs Win Percentage Prediction. Ugh
That was partly matchups, but your point remains valid.
This puzzles me. The Spurs halted a Lakers team that had won 3 straight championships with Kobe and Shaq in their primes.
that detroit team was so good though .
I already despise them because of this. When the game gets tight in the fourth, the heat get away with a lot more on defense.
by biggest you mean most difficult? um, yeah probably. Duncan is old and decrepit, he hardly can keep up with opposing superstars.
But if you mean, biggest as most important? no. This is Duncan's career twilight, no way you can have your most important challenge when you are about to retire.
The pistons, and lakers and shaq were most definitely Duncan's most important challenges in his career.
I had a dream where Stern had to force a fake smile as he handed Duncan and Popovich their 5th Larry O'Brien Trophy... Pop then said in front of the entire NBA-world... "resting my guys over the course of the season sure paid off dividends... you can't really place a price tag on something like that... 250K, 500K, 1MM? It's priceless TBH..."
The dialogue went something like that... (recollection of the sequencing of dream is no easy matter... LOL)...
To answer the poll OP question... yes, only because it would be Duncan's first Finals series without HCA.
Last edited by Phenomanul; 05-29-2013 at 09:37 AM.
And the obvious age factor...
the tbh though...
If the Spurs had gotten past the Lakers in 2001 and 2002, I'm quite sure they would have crushed the 76ers and Nets in the Finals.
00-01 lakers were the biggest challenge and it's not really even close.
Maybe the poll should read "If the Spurs beat the Heat, will it be the best team they've ever beaten?"
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