Spurs extend record with 16th consecutive 50-win season
Extolling the San Antonio Spurs has become a pointless exercise. There's just nothing new or surprising to report here. The Spurs are ridiculously good, seemingly always have been and possibly always will be. They are the standard-bearers for excellence in the world of team sports.
With their sixth consecutive win on Friday - a 30-point rout of the Denver Nuggets - the Spurs extended their own NBA record by locking up their 16th consecutive season with at least 50 wins.
Sixteen in a row. The last time the Spurs won fewer than 50 games, Bill Clinton was in office. And that season, by the way, was only 50 games long, so forgive the Spurs for not going undefeated. (They weren't even that far off. They went 37-13 and won the title).
But for that lockout-shortened 1998-99 campaign, the Spurs would be sitting on 18 consecutive 50-plus-win seasons. The next-best run belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers, who had 12 straight from 1979 to 1991.
That abbreviated season also stands as the only season in which Tim Duncan hasn't hit the 50-win plateau. (And again, they won the title that year!) As it is, Duncan alone has experienced more 50-win seasons than all but three other NBA teams (the Lakers, Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns).
When they were banged up and in the midst of a mid-season swoon that dropped their record 34-23, their streak looked to be in jeopardy. Since then, they've gotten almost completely healthy and reeled off 16 wins in their last 19 games to once again jump into the championship conversation.
The Spurs will never go away.