There's 2 major differences here between Joker and Duncan. First is that I'm not saying that Joker has to win 2 games, he just can't get blown the out 7 out of his last 8 playoffs games. The Lakers series was at least compe ive from that standpoint.
And the second difference is that Shaq and Kobe are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa y better than Klay and Steph or Poole or whoever. That's TWO top 10 players of all time on the same team while the Warriors have like a top 20 guy and another guy who might barely be top 100. And a 3rd guy who is like 110th all time.
It shouldn't be too much of an ask to have Joker at least make his losses compe ive. Where if he's still playing the 4th quarter he is playing for a reason other than to stat pad. But The warriors aren't that good of a team where if Joker had his pieces he should have everyone believe they would still lose.
A better Spurs comparison is who do you have winning the finals. 2006 Spurs or 2006 Heat? I don't know the answer to that obviously bc it didn't happen, however if I said the Heat then a reasonable argument could be made just the same way a reasonable argument could be made for the Spurs. Either answer isn't really wrong bc they top guys are top guys who demand that type of respect. Nobod, outside of the Joker brothers, believe that even if both teams were fully healthy, Denver would win that series. And to me that's the difference between really good players and great players. Jokic is a really good player but when push comes to shove, nobody thinks of him as a great player
W