The All-Star lineup that followed saw He Xi Meng and Payton both make the first All-NBA team, alongside O'Neal, Duncan, and Garnett.
Kidd would have qualified for the first team as well, but due to an injury towards the end of the season that ended his campaign, he had too many missed games and was ultimately relegated to the third team.
All five players on the first All-NBA team hailed from Western Conference teams, a clear indication of the East's weakness versus the West's strength.
The second All-NBA team consisted of Mourning, Malone, Hill, Kobe, and Iverson.
The third All-NBA team featured David Robinson, Webber, Carter, Eddie Jones, and Kidd.
The All-Defensive teams largely overlapped with the All-NBA selections.
The first All-Defensive team included Duncan, Garnett, and Payton, who were also on the first All-NBA team, and Mourning and Kobe from the second All-NBA team.
The second All-Defensive team featured O'Neal from the first All-NBA team, Kidd and Eddie Jones from the third All-NBA team, and only Pippen and Clifford Robinson were not All-NBA selections.
Looking at these two most prestigious selections, the Spurs were undoubtedly the biggest winners of the season, even surpassing the regular season champions, the Lakers.
The Lakers only had O'Neal and Kobe selected for the All-NBA teams, while the Spurs had three players: Duncan, He Xi Meng, and David Robinson!
In the All-Defensive selections, Duncan was in the first team, and while David Robinson wasn't selected, his defensive threat and quality this season, despite consciously reducing his playing time, was certainly superior to Clifford Robinson on the second team. As for He Xi Meng's defensive ability, it was also underestimated by the league. The primary reason was that He Xi Meng's defensive stats weren't particularly outstanding. On defense, He Xi Meng followed a philosophy of prevention, focusing on suppressing opponents' desire to shoot. Through anticipation and early positioning, he denied opponents space to drive or shoot, representing a higher tier of defensive philosophy. However, based on intuitive defensive statistics, neither He Xi Meng's steals nor his blocks were particularly prominent among league point guards...
With the regular season awards concluded, the playoff battles continued.
The Spurs' second-round opponent was the old Western Conference powerhouse, the Jazz!
The Jazz's starting lineup was Malone, Hornacek, Russell, Stockton, and Poliness.
Apart from the center position, where Poliness replaced Ostertag, the Jazz's starting lineup remained virtually unchanged. This was the case last season, and the season before that...
This Jazz starting lineup could even be traced back to the 1995-1996 season. At that time, Jordan's second three-peat dynasty had just begun.
Five years later, Jordan had won three championships and retired. The Lakers had risen, the Spurs had risen, yet the Jazz were still using the same starting lineup.
On one hand, it demonstrated the Jazz's frightening consistency. On the other hand, it also showed that the Jazz were doing a poor job of scouting and developing new talent.
The Spurs' starting lineup consisted of David Robinson, Duncan, Mario Elie, He Xi Meng, and the "kidney warrior" Sean Elliott, who had recovered from his illness.
Elliott had undergone surgery and missed the entire regular season, only to return for the playoffs. In the first-round series against the Suns, Elliott's performance was stable, averaging 10 points, and he was a reliable wing defender for the Spurs.
The game began with David Robinson winning the tip against Poliness, giving the Spurs the first possession. He Xi Meng brought the ball up past half-court, called for Duncan to set a high pick-and-roll to draw Malone out of the paint, and then looked to pass to David Robinson in the low post!
David Robinson received the pass, turned to face his defender, and got an opportunity to go one-on-one against Poliness! After a pump fake, David Robinson opted for a close-range pull-up jumper. Poliness didn't expect David Robinson to shoot from that distance and was caught off guard, only able to watch as David Robinson scored with his jump shot!
David Robinson during the regular season was not truly at his peak. Due to the Spurs' strategy, the "Admiral" had hidden some of his strength during the regular season, aiming to perform better in the playoffs.
If Poliness believed that the current David Robinson could only score garbage points near the basket, the Jazz would surely suffer.
On the other side, Stockton brought the ball up past half-court. Malone didn't even need Stockton to switch; he immediately set a high pick-and-roll, helping Stockton shake off He Xi Meng's defense and also drawing Duncan up high.
Stockton, using the timing of the Spurs' switch, drove directly towards the Spurs' basket with a quick acceleration.
David Robinson was being screened by Poliness and couldn't rotate over to help immediately, but the switched defender, Duncan, was in hot pursuit, preparing to block Stockton from behind. The veteran Stockton, of course, knew Duncan's intentions, so before going up for the layup, he used a side-step maneuver! He used his body as a shield to create as much distance as possible from Duncan behind him...
If it were purely a physical contest, Duncan could have used his height and reach to get to Stockton's layup. But the problem was that as Duncan closed in, Stockton used his left hand as a pivot point between himself and Duncan, preventing Duncan from extending his reach forward...
This was the experience of a small veteran player who had been in the league for over a decade! To survive in this brutal league and become a historical player, who didn't have a few tricks up their sleeve?
Stockton successfully made the layup, tying the score for the Jazz.
The game continued. On the Spurs' second possession, He Xi Meng again passed the ball to David Robinson. This time, however, David Robinson didn't go for a pull-up jumper. Instead, he faked out Poliness and attempted a driving layup.
Poliness, in an effort to stop David Robinson, committed a foul. David Robinson, being an old hand, at the moment he was fouled, instinctively tossed the ball towards the basket.
Although the toss was not ideal, he successfully drew a shooting foul from the referee.
David Robinson went to the free-throw line and made both shots, scoring his first 4 points of the game.
Coach Sloan, on the sidelines, was very unhappy with the Jazz's interior defense and yelled at his players on the court to focus on collapsing the defense.
Poliness was clearly outmatched by David Robinson in a one-on-one situation. To stop the "Admiral" from scoring further, the Jazz needed to rotate and provide help defense, which was what Coach Sloan meant by "collapsing"...