The Spurs May Be Poised For Another Run

The NBA playoffs begin tomorrow afternoon with the Washington Wizards visiting the Toronto Raptors. That series along with the entire first round should be very entertaining, with so many great match-ups. Most will be in the western conference, but the east should provide some excitement as well. The series everyone seems to be most interested in is that between the Los Angeles Clippers and the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.
The Spurs thought they might grab the second seed, but instead lost on the last night of the regular season and ended up with the six spot. This is not a great situation for the Spurs, not having home court advantage at all during these playoffs, but not the end of the world. As we all know this team can beat any team in any place. If they are to win three straight series on the road and advance to a third straight NBA finals, it will take maybe an even better team performance than last year.
20 years ago a team was in the exact same situation as these Spurs. The team had not been in the playoffs for 18 straight years and already have five titles, but that year had been very similar. The Houston Rockets limped into the playoffs as the number six seed in the conference. Just the season before, the Rockets had defeated the New York Knicks in seven gams to capture the NBA chmapionship. The team, led by hall of famers Hakeem Olajuwon and Cylde Drexler, started off by beating the third seeded Utah Jazz, who had a great point guard power forward combo in John Stockton and Karl Malone (remind you of a certain duo in LA?). In the second round the team had to battle to defeat a strong Phoenix Suns team led by the great individual play of Charles Barkley (perhaps James Harden's Houston Rockets?).
Then came the conference finals, where the team took on the league MVP and the team with the best record in the NBA. The 1995 Rockets played the 1995 San Antonio Spurs (in case this is confusing), who had thrived all season behind the incredible play of their MVP David Robinson (similar to Golden State and Stephen Curry this year). The Rockets beat the Spurs and went on to sweep the Orlando Magic in the finals, and claim the teams second straight title.
This situation for the Spurs is potentially so similar to that Rockets team, if all the the right things happen. I still believe that the Warriors will come out of the West, but there is no way I would be surprised if the Spurs ended up back in the finals.