Did a prime/near prime Shaq or Duncan ever have a bad playoff series?

[Smoke117]

I'm not sure what's so difficult to understand about Shaq not only being past his prime in 2007, but putting up better numbers in the playoffs than he did in the regular season that year

He's clearly a moron and has trouble reading, so just give up.

[Mr. I'm So Rad]

You know you're a bad brothatrucker when dudes look at 21/12/3/3 as "eh."

While shooting below 50%...that is a big drop off for Shaq. He was banged up in that series, but he wasn't as effective against SA as he had been in other years.

[longhornfan1234]

06 Shaq. Wade had to bailed him out in the finals.

[oarabbus]

duncan won finals mvp averaging like 20 points on 40% in 2005. worst finals mvp ever IMO

42%, against one of the all time defenses. Yeah, not too great. But he put up 20.5/14/2blk on that series, beast

[ImKobe]

Shaq in 04 first round against Houston - 16 & 11 on 52% shooting, for a guy that's supposed to still be in his prime at 32 years old, that was pretty medicore(for his standards).

Duncan's 05 Finals at 29 years old - 20.6 ppg on 47% TS, pretty sure that's the lowest TS% for any Finals MVP in the modern era.

42%, against one of the all time defenses. Yeah, not too great. But he put up 20.5/14/2blk on that series, beast

How's that "beast"? 20 ppg on 18 shots a game, 14 rebounds against 6'8 Ben Wallace. Manu had a case for the FMVP of that series, 19/6/4 on 64%TS.

[BoutPractice]

How can 20.6 ppg and 14 rpg, 2 bpg, the highest game score on your team, and the FMVP, all this vs a historically tough frontcourt (Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, and Antonio McDyess, with both Wallaces being held under their averages in the relevant areas), be spinned into a "bad series"? What have you guys been smoking?

And how is Wallace being 6'8 relevant to Duncan's performance? Wallace is unquestionably an all-time great rebounder, and one of the great defenders of his era...

Also, TS% underrates bigs that don't take 3s, like Duncan. It's not the be-all-end-all of percentages. (Not disputing that Duncan's percentage was bad, just noting that TS% somewhat artificially makes it look worse than it was... you're not expecting Tim Duncan to take 3s).

You want to know what a bad series looks like? Try scoring 15 ppg on 37 FG% as your team's star second option in the NBA Finals, almost getting outscored by the likes of Austin Croshere (to be fair he was a decent player, but no one's ever called him GOAT)... or a 8 ppg dropoff and scoreless 4 quarters in the Finals as your team's superduperstar first option, getting outscored not only by the opposing team's star, but by two of your own teammates as well as Jason Terry.

[Hamtaro CP3KDKG]

Nikkas mentioning 07 as part of Shaqs prime is reaching. Same with saying 06.
Shaqs pre prime to post prime was 94-05. Anything else is a carcass

[masonanddixon]

Duncan was garbage against Dallas in 08-09, including a 4 pt game on 1-8 shooting, lol. It was a very lebron-esque performance

[fpliii]

Nikkas mentioning 07 as part of Shaqs prime is reaching. Same with saying 06.
Shaqs pre prime to post prime was 94-05. Anything else is a carcass

I'd include 93 if you're throwing 05 in there. Rookie Shaq was so crazy going coast-to-coast.

[Stringer Bell]

You want to know what a bad series looks like? Try scoring 15 ppg on 37 FG% as your team's star second option in the NBA Finals, almost getting outscored by the likes of Austin Croshere (to be fair he was a decent player, but no one's ever called him GOAT)... or a 8 ppg dropoff and scoreless 4 quarters in the Finals as your team's superduperstar first option, getting outscored not only by the opposing team's star, but by two of your own teammates as well as Jason Terry.

I remember being impressed with Croshere in those finals and thinking he was going to have a much better career than he did.

The Pacers did too, giving him a $50 million contract.

[HOoopCityJones]

He's clearly a moron and has trouble reading, so just give up.

Stay outta grown folks business puss.

Doesn't matter what he did in the reg season compared to Post. Those numbers by Shaq standards is shit sauce.

[robert_shaww]

Shaq in 04 first round against Houston - 16 & 11 on 52% shooting, for a guy that's supposed to still be in his prime at 32 years old, that was pretty medicore(for his standards).

Duncan's 05 Finals at 29 years old - 20.6 ppg on 47% TS, pretty sure that's the lowest TS% for any Finals MVP in the modern era.



How's that "beast"? 20 ppg on 18 shots a game, 14 rebounds against 6'8 Ben Wallace. Manu had a case for the FMVP of that series, 19/6/4 on 64%TS.

[Stringer Bell]

Duncan was held to a measly 9 points in Game 3 of the 2001 west conference playoffs vs the Lakers in a 39 point loss.

I don't know if the whole series qualifies. He put up monster numbers in the first 2 games, then poor numbers in those dreadful blowouts in the last 2 games.

I don't think there was any postseason series in either Shaq or Duncan's primes that I would say was "bad".

[Stringer Bell]

Duncan was garbage against Dallas in 08-09, including a 4 pt game on 1-8 shooting, lol. It was a very lebron-esque performance

He only really played poorly in that one game though, where he played 15 minutes. He played well in the next 2 games.

Hard to find a "bad" postseason series for prime Duncan or Shaq.

Maybe below their usual standards, but not "bad" like Ewing in the 94' Finals, Kobe in the 04' Finals, Lebron in the 11' Finals, etc..

[T_L_P]

Hard to find a "bad" postseason series for prime Duncan or Shaq.

Maybe below their usual standards, but not "bad" like Ewing in the 94' Finals, Kobe in the 04' Finals, Lebron in the 11' Finals, etc..

Hit the nail on the head. Duncan has had plenty of bad/mediocre ones past his prime, but that's kinda the point: he's past the point where he's consistently elite. Happens to every great.