NBA: Ranking the San Antonio Spurs' 5 Championships

#2 2005 Title vs the Detroit Pistons (4-3)

The San Antonio Spurs celebrating their 2005 title.

This was a highly competitive season for the Spurs, one where they beat some of their toughest opponents en route to the title. Their last two series wins in the Playoffs were some of their most impressive in their run to five championships, knocking off the 62-win Phoenix Suns in five games in the Western Conference Finals before knocking off the defending champion Detroit Pistons in a hard-fought, seven-game series.

The big three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili began to show what they could truly become as a trio and the Spurs sported the best defense in the league. With all three of the stars starting for the first time together, the Spurs gelled in a way that helped them fend off the league's new darlings, the Phoenix Suns, come playoff time. The Spurs had everything from shooting, depth, to driving and passing, but per usual in the mid-2000s, defense was their calling card, ranking first in the league in defensive efficiency. They also were a little better than their record based on net efficiency and scoring margin.

Why this isn't their best title team has a little more to do with the state of the league at this moment in time. There was a transition phase taking place as the NBA tried to figure out low scoring, integrating a flux of young high school and foreign-born players, and how to make the game more fan appealing. The transition state of the league forced the overall game to suffer, so while the Spurs put up some impressive numbers in both win total and net efficiency, there was a bigger gap between the top and the bottom of the league that boosted their overall profile.

This season was a slog, evidence that showed up in the Finals where only one team scored over 100 during the whole series. This Spurs team was really good and faced a daunting end of the Playoffs, but it doesn't quite stack up with the #1 on the list.