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How Spurs made NBA Finals potential extremely clear during franchise tradition
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As experts and fans continue to dissect whether the San Antonio Spurs are indeed true NBA championship contenders, the team continues to give indication after indication that they are. The young core's performance in the franchise's annual Rodeo Road Trip underscores another sign — at least by their standards — that they are taking that next step.
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The annual excursion that takes the Spurs away from their home for a month started during the 2002-2003 season when the organization moved into a new arena. That year the Spurs went 8-1 as the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo took over their building. It's a road trip mark no Silver and Black team has since surpassed. In '03, the Silver and Black used the stretch to propel them to the franchise's second ever championship.
Two years later, the Spurs claimed a third title after going 5-2 in what then represented the third Rodeo Road Trip in franchise history. In June of 2007, the Spurs again held the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Four months earlier, they had put up a 4-4 mark within February. Seven years after that, they went 6-3 within the 28-day span en route to the 2014 championship.
In between and shortly after their fifth title , the franchise never sustained a losing record on the Rodeo Road trip:
2004: 6-1
2006: 6-22008: 6-3
2009: 5-3
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2010: 4-4
2011: 6-3
2012: 8-1
2013: 7-2
2015: 4-5
2016: 7-1
2017: 6-2
It's probably not a coincidence that '17 also represents the last time the Spurs advanced to the conference finals. Between the inception of the Rodeo Road Trip in 2003 and then, the organization advanced to the league semifinals nine times.
Rodeo Road Trip success dips for Spurs
From the 2017-'18 season to the campaign that ended in the spring of 2023, the Spurs didn't capture a winning record once – outside of a three-game trip in 2021 that was cut well short because of COVID restrictions. Otherwise, the organization struggled every February :
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2018: 2-4
2019: 1-7
2020: 2-6
2022: 4-4
2023: 1-8
The Spurs qualified for the playoffs in '18 before losing to the Golden State Warriors in the first round. The following season they made the postseason again, pressing the second-seeded Denver Nuggets to the limit before losing in Game 7.
The franchise hasn't made the playoffs since, breaking an NBA record of 22 consecutive appearances.
The Victor Wembanyama era of the Rodeo Road Trip
Victor Wembanyama's first experience with the franchise's two-decade tradition also represented one of its worst showings when the Silver and Black went 1-8 for a second straight Rodeo Road Trip.
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They then went 3-7 last year.
This time around, the jaunt included a perfect 11-0 record in February , marking just the third time in franchise history the team has gone undefeated in a calendar month (ten games minimum) and the club's longest winning streak since 2015-16. Seven of those 11 victories came on the road, including victories vs. the Los Angeles Lakers , Detroit Pistons , Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers .
Officially, the Spurs went 6-1 on the Rodeo Road Trip this year. In actuality, they won eight of nine away from the Frost Bank Center when their two annual 'home' games in Austin are factored into the stretch.
That 8-1 mark matches the record the 2002-03 team sported. Now we wait to see if these Spurs match that championship squad in another way.
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Related: Victor Wembanyama's warning to rest of NBA after Spurs' 40-point demolition of 76ers
Related: The bizarre reason Spurs' forward Harrison Barnes' streak of 364 games played was snapped
