Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich are the only guys still around from the San Antonio Spurs team that
won the championship in the lockout shortened season of 1999. You can draw a lot of similarities between that season and this one, and Duncan is looking for the same result.
“I guess if you look back and compare, yeah, it’s a lot like that,” Duncan said Saturday. ”We hope it ends like that, too.”
The Spurs finished the 1998-99 regular season tied for the best record (37-13) with the Utah Jazz, but they had the number 1 overall seed and breezed through the postseason. They only lost 2 games through the entire playoffs, one to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round and one to the New York Knicks in the Finals.
If the Spurs are going to repeat the magic of the 1999 season and hoist the trophy at the end, it’s undoubtedly going to be a lot tougher this time around. They definitely have the opportunity to be the champs again, but they’re going to have to get past some very tough competition. They showed yesterday that they can handle the Jazz, but after that it will be the Grizzlies or the Clippers and then in the conference finals they could face any number of teams that will give them a tough run.
If history is going to repeat itself, the Spurs will have to maintain a strong focus and be able to stay healthy. If they can do that, Spurs fans may be looking at a nice case of déjà vu.
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