3 best defensive NBA teams of the 21st century based on regular-season defensive rating

#1 San Antonio Spurs - 2003/04 NBA season

Tony Parker #7, Tim Duncan #21 and Bruce Bowen #12 of the San Antonio Spurs

The 2003-04 NBA season was definitely one that had tremendous defensive units, as the three-best teams in terms of Defensive Rating in the 21st century all come from that campaign.

The San Antonio Spurs, fresh off their 2003 NBA championship, were the best defensive team in the 2003-04 NBA regular season, putting up a 94.1 Defensive Rating.

While Tim Duncan was the defensive anchor for the Spurs for his entire NBA career, Bruce Bowne was also a unique defensive presence on the Spurs' roster during the 2000s, and he even finished fourth in the 2003-04 NBA DPOY voting, three spots ahead of Duncan.

The 2003-04 San Antonio Spurs ultimately failed to defend their championship due to a Western Conference Semis exit marked by Derek Fisher's crazy game-winner with 0.4 seconds on the clock in Game 5.

In the regular season, San Antonio put up a 57-25 record, the second-best in the West, but the Spurs were the third seed because they didn't win their division (Minnesota and the LA Lakers did).

Without taking the number of possessions into consideration, the 2003-04 San Antonio Spurs also allowed the lowest number of points per game to the opposition, with only 84.3.

The 2003-04 Spurs' defense in the regular season was so good that the team led the NBA in Net Rating (point differential per 100 possessions) even with the 16th-best Offensive Rating in the entire league.

The 2003-04 San Antonio Spurs' Defensive Rating ranks fifth in NBA history for a single-season performance. Just for guidance, last year's league average of Defensive Rating was at 112.3, while in the 2003-04 season it stood at 102.9.

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