re: 2014 Spurs v 1996 Bulls

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You make great points, but did the Bulls ever play a team as good as the Mavs in round one?

Did the Bulls ever rest starters en masse?

Did the Bulls ever play in a conference as stacked as the West in 2014?

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I wouldn't say that Heat team in 96 was as good as the Mavs, but they did have Mourning and Hardaway so it's not like they had a group of no-name players. The Bulls team dominated that series. Second round they played a pretty solid Knicks team with Ewing, Mason, Starks, Oakley, Derek Harper, and Hubert Davis. Third round they played that Orlando team that made the finals the year before and swept them. That team consisted of Shaq and a healthy Penny Hardaway (both were easily top 10 players in the league), Dennis Scott, Nick Anderson, and former Bull Horace Grant. I know that team got swept by the Rockets in the finals the year before, but Shaq and Penny were another year older. In the finals they played a 64 win Supersonic team that included Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Hersey Hawkins, Detlef Schrempf, and Sam Perkins. That's a great team so it isn't like the Bulls never played anybody

I don't think the Bulls ever rested starters. I think Rodman and Longley both missed 20ish games, but they definitely didn't rest their starters or players in general nearly to the extent Pop did with the Spurs.

Bulls definitely didn't play in a conference as stacked as the West in 2014, but I do feel like the Spurs were lucky to escape without playing the Rockets in the playoffs because they were a match up nightmare for this Spurs team.