On the night of its last regular season game, San Antonio needed a victory to grab the West's No. 3 seed. Unfortunately for the Spurs, their loss to the Pelicans (who had to win to make the playoffs) dropped them all the way down to the conference's sixth position. The defending champs, winners of 55 games and one of the few teams on everybody's short list of title contenders this season, were forced to take on the 56-win Clippers on the road in Round 1.
The series gave us championship-caliber basketball in the first round of the postseason.