I’m going to keep this restricted from the late 1970s and going forward. I mean no disrespect to the greatness of Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson, among others, but I never saw them play and will leave assessments to those that did.
The 2001 San Antonio Spurs spent the regular season and two rounds of the postseason looking like they were ready get back on top of the NBA world. In the end, they ran into a historic steamroller in the conference finals, but the Spurs continued to establish themselves as a permanent fixture in the NBA’s elite in 2001.
I think it’s safe to say two things—none of us expected a sequel and none of us are complaining that we have one.
San Antonio and Utah are on the opposite ends of the NBA’s Western Conference bracket, but each come into the playoffs on a roll. The Spurs have won nine straight coming into Thursday night’s meaningless game against Golden State and passed Oklahoma City for the top seed in the West. Utah, after falling three games below .500 at the end of February, found their footing and delivered a four-game win streak as a finishing spurt, including an overtime win over Dallas and a clutch win over Phoenix this week that nailed down the last playoff spot. Now the Spurs and Jazz are dance partners in the 1-8 spot of the West playoffs, and TheSportsNotebook previews the matchup…