There is no debate about the best team in basketball right now. With two rounds left before the 2012 NBA championship is decided, the San Antonio Spurs are riding an 18-game winning streak, including the last eight in the playoffs. While the Spurs haven’t lost since April 12, chances are at least reasonable that they eventually will. They even could fail to reach the NBA Finals. Then again, it seems equally plausible that they win out.
If that happens, they will be regarded as the best Spurs team ever. They’re already worth comparing to San Antonio’s four previous championship squads.
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They’re better than the 2005 champions, who ran through the Western Conference with relative ease, going to six games only in the semifinals against Seattle. But the Spurs got a rude awakening by the Detroit Pistons’ defense in the finals and needed Robert “Big Shot Rob” Horry to escape with an overtime victory in Game 5 before winning the title in seven.
San Antonio’s latest regular-season run echoes both 2003 and 2007.
In 2003, winning streaks of nine and 11 games defined the second half of the regular season as Tim Duncan won his second straight NBA MVP. The difference in the playoffs was Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The Spurs lost the opening game in two of their playoff series, but their two defeats in the finals, which they won in six games over New Jersey, came by a total of three points.
In 2007, San Antonio went 25-6 through the regular season’s final 31 games and cruised through both the conference finals and NBA Finals; the league title was essentially decided in six games against Phoenix in the second round.
Of course, the Spurs used the last lockout to get their first championship in 1999. The 2012 Spurs have allowed more points in the playoffs than the 1999 team (88.8 to 81.2 per game), but they score way more, too (102.5 to 88.4). While that shortened season 13 years ago helped preserve the veteran legs of David Robinson and Avery Johnson, San Antonio’s dominance was complete, with just two losses in 17 postseason games. The current group cares only about the Larry O’Brien Trophy, but that’s the standard they’re on pace to match.
– Craig Stouffer
