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And the foul that mattered in the last six seconds they didn't call.

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Man, Duncan followed through with his block and hit forearm, but he got a lot of ball before that. Put another way, even if Duncan had pulled up with his block and stopped short of Harden's forearm, there was no way the ball was going in at that point. Duncan had already knocked the ball of Harden's control

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Yup. Top angle shows that pretty clearly.

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And the foul that mattered in the last six seconds they didn't call.

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Man, Duncan followed through with his block and hit forearm, but he got a lot of ball before that. Put another way, even if Duncan had pulled up with his block and stopped short of Harden's forearm, there was no way the ball was going in at that point. Duncan had already knocked the ball of Harden's control

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Yup. Top angle shows that pretty clearly.

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Got ball first and was making a play on the ball. Incidental contact is allowed on the arm after a blocked shot as long as it is not overly physical, and if someone says that was overly physical than you need to turn in your man card and have yourself castrated immediately....

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Yes! My reverse jinx worked!

Go Spurs Go!

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I missed that one. Well played.

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Yes! My reverse jinx worked!

Go Spurs Go!

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** Proffers gentlemanly handshake for a job well done **

Well done sir.

Did the NBA ever release their review of the final play?

Came here to say this. The rivals of Duncan's Spurs have pretty much been the Lakers, Mavs, and to a lesser extent the Suns.

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Came here to say this. The rivals of Duncan's Spurs have pretty much been the Lakers, Mavs, and to a lesser extent the Suns.

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Some great series in there for the Spurs vs Mavs rivalry.

http://www.landofbasketball.com/head_to_head/spurs_vs_mavericks_all_time.htm

I still have bad memories about that 1995 Spurs Rockets Series........Dang You Rodman!!!!!!!

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Came here to say this. The rivals of Duncan's Spurs have pretty much been the Lakers, Mavs, and to a lesser extent the Suns.

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Here's the complete list of teams who have won the West Conf Finals from 1998 to now:

• LOLakers: 7 ('00, '01, '02, '04, '08, '09, '10)
• San Antonio Spurs: 6 ('99, '03, '05, '07, '13, '14)
• Dallas Mavs: 2 ('06, '11)
• Okie City 1 ('12)
• Utah Jazz 1 ('98)

I would say that the Spurs' rivals during the Duncan Era have been:
1. Lakers
(HUGE drop-off)
2. Mavs(drop-off)
3. whoever the flavor of the year is

And OKC in recent years.

Lakers are by far #1. I'd out Mavs and Suns as 2 and 3. And then grizzlies and rockets distant 4 and 5. Back in the late 90s the t-wolves were pretty hated too.

I'd definitely list the Suns in there.

In the Duncan era, the Spurs are 5-2 against the Suns, 4-2 against the Mavs, and 3-4 against the Lakers.


The first time Duncan played the Suns, they had Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, and Antonio McDyess in the first four years of their careers plus veterans Danny Manning, Rex Chapman, Clifford Robinson, and Kevin Johnson. The second and third meetings were transitional as the Suns traded some of those vets for the 7-seconds or less Suns and the Spurs lost The Admiral but gained a couple crazy Euro guards. The two teams would go on to play four increasingly chippy series.

The Suns had pre-surgery Amare Stoudemire, MVP Steve Nash, Shawn Marion back when he was around 20 ppg, Joe Johnson, and the endlessly irritating Raja Bell. The Spurs had the Big Three. There was a four year span where the Suns and Spurs played three times, and the Suns and much of the sporting world were absolutely convinced each year that it was the exciting Suns time to relegate the boring old Spurs to the trash heap. This matchup was the origin of the "Spurs are boring" storyline that haunted us until two years ago. Every time they failed, usually due to an eyepopping Duncan stat line, the Suns and their fans got madder. Timmy's buzzerbeater three, Horry hipchecking Nash, all those unstoppable Duncan moments... plenty of memorable moments from this rivalry.

We might never see another series as good as SAS/DAL 2006, but for a sustained rivalry the Suns are right there with the Mavs.


This also kind of takes me back to all the dynasties and proto-dynasties the Spurs have outlasted over the years. The Shaq/Kobe Lakers, the 7-seconds or less Suns, the Nowitzki Mavs, the Gasol/Kobe Lakers, the Lebron Cavs pt 1, the Miami Heatles, the Celtics big three, the mid-00s Pistons. You can even throw in a few teams like the Yao/McGrady Rockets that never had any success but were tabbed as the next big thing anyway.

The Thunder are/were the next in a long line of heirs apparent, but they are beginning to sputter as injury trouble, salary cap realities, and the ever-improving Spurs all take their toll on whatever advantage once existed. Is Golden State the one? The Lebron Cavs pt 2? The Hawks? More and more, it's looking like the Duncan Spurs crown will be laid down before it can be taken.

dp

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Jazz aren't even a top 10 rival in the Duncan era. Suns are clearly top three. Rockets... on what basis would there be a rivalry?

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Suns were definitely a big rival for about 3-4 years. That's about it. About the same as the Thunder.

To me, there hasn't been a Rivalry with the Rockets left since Robinson threw out his back and broke his knee. That was the Rockets' last good year.

I beg to differ. Anyone pointing out specific 2-3 year time periods misunderstand what I mean by Rivals. Sure there are teams that come and go, like the Jazz, now it seems that some consider the Thunder or even the Mavs. But, when you look at the history of the Spurs and Rockets since they have been in the NBA, there hasn't been another team over that entire history that you could consider a Rival of the Spurs. The 2nd closest would be the Lakers, but I don't think Laker fans would consider the Spurs to ever be their Rival.

Just because A&M or tu were in down cycles, and we were competing for championships against other teams during those periods, I doubt you would ever consider the other teams your Rival. It's the same with the Spurs - Rockets. Both fan bases have a strong dislike for each other and enjoy when the other team is struggling and get even hotter when they are both doing well. Hell, I've lived in Houston since '92 and Rockets fans have always hated the Spurs, even when there wasn't any particular playoff series or fight for playoff position. I know most of my Spurs friends back in SA still have a strong dislike of the Rockets, even when they are down.

This goes back decades, so if your in your 20's and early 30's, you weren't old enough to see the Spurs play Moses Malone, Calvin Murphy, John Lucas, Rick Barry, Mike Dunleavy, Sleepy Floyd, Vernon Maxwell, Rodney McCray, Mario Elie, Ralph Sampson, Kenny Smith, Otis Thorpe, Rudy T, etc. Nor were you likely to see James Silas, Larry Kenan, Johnny Moore, George Gervin, George Karl, Coby Dietrik, Alan Bristow, Mike Gale, Mark Olberding, Billy Paultz, Louie Dampier, Mike Mitchell, Artis Gilmore, Alvin Robertson, Willie Anderson, etc. The point being, this thing goes way, way back. It may have lost some luster during certain periods when one or the other was down, but there isn't another team in the NBA that the Spurs have this kind of history as a Rival.

The thing that's crazy to me is the Spurs have outlasted the rise and fall of some pretty strong championship-caliber teams throughout Duncan's career.

The Pistons. The Lakers. The Mavs. The Suns. The Thunder. The Heat. All rose and fell, and yet here the Spurs still are.

Everyone, listen-up... it seems that KP has just declared that A&M and tu are no longer Rivals since we haven't been competing for the past few years and don't plan to for the foreseeable future... And really, that rivalry died back in the 60's and 70's when A&M was down, or maybe in the late 80's-early 90's time period when tu was down.

Sorry for the sarcasm, but damn that logic was deserving of a little.

The two teams have played in the playoffs ~once in 30 years. They are more or less Baylor. Sure we want to beat them, but we completely expect to beat them every year because they are Rubbish.

Burn-it...you're wrong. Sorry.

If you asked a random sample of Spurs fans who they thought was the biggest rival of the Spurs, I'd bet you'd get over 80 percent saying the Lakers. Another 10% for the Mavs. The Rockets are not a long-term rival. Sure, things are heated when the Spurs play the Rockets, but not a top rivalry. At all.

There has probably more wasted time arguing what is and is not a rival on message board than anything else. A lot of is just your perspective on the situation. Its as much opinion than it is based on any fact.

I've been a Spurs fan for nearly 20 years and I've never seen the Spurs and Rockets play a playoff game. If you want to argue that long term history should trump recent times... they've only met in the playoffs three times in the 50-year history of the franchises: 1980, 1981, and 1995. Compare that to:
12 - Lakers
10 - Suns
7 - Mavs
6 - Nuggets
5 - Jazz
4 - Blazers

I get that beating the Spurs was a Really Big Deal to the Rockets faithful and rightfully so: it was a big matchup on the way to your second title to prove that the Olajuwon Rockets were for real. That doesn't mean that it is nearly as big a deal to Spurs fans. We've watched our team win 35 playoff series and 5 titles since then. How can we possibly care very much about one playoff series in the last 35 years after six years of going toe to toe with the Shaq/Kobe Lakers, 10 years against the Nowitzki Mavs, and several 3-5 year runs against hateable teams like the Garnett TWolves, Nash Suns, and Durant/Westbrook Thunder? We've even met the Heat twice in the Finals, which is more history than we have against the Rockets.

I'm sure there are a few Spurs fans, especially those living in Houston, that perceive more of a rivalry than I do because they hear Rockets fans talk about it a lot. As a Spurs fan from San Antonio, the Rockets are roughly equivalent to every non Lakers/Mavs/Suns team in the West. Occasionally they'll spike up due to whatever is going on at the time, but how do you build up any real enmity without playing?

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I'm sure there are a few Spurs fans, especially those living in Houston, that perceive more of a rivalry than I do because they hear Rockets fans talk about it a lot.

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Nope. I hear them talk about Dallas and Portland more than us.