Stephen A Smith posts rare W in defending golden era Spurs

It can be easy to get carried away after seeing a team reel off 17 straight wins, but let's be clear -- there's only one San Antonio Spurs.

Still, people love to make comparisons to historic teams, even if they're extremely premature. Following the Phoenix Suns' 17th straight win on Tuesday, ESPN's Marcus Spears did just that.

"When I was watching last night, I was like 'damn, this looks like the San Antonio Spurs.' The Phoenix Suns look like the San Antonio Spurs," said Spears. "Mikal Bridges -- Bruce Bowen. Deandre Ayton dominated the boards and under the basket like Duncan. Look at CP3 -- a floor general like Tony Parker. I could go on."

Fortunately, Stephen A. Smith of all people was there to shut him down.

"That's blasphemous. That's blasphemous!" responded Smith. While Jay Williams' unrelated response didn't allow Smith to elaborate more, his face as Spears was talking said it all.

The Suns are accomplishing similar feats, but the comparisons end there

Since the episode of First Take, the Phoenix Suns set a franchise record by winning their 18th straight game. Their loss to Golden State on Friday left them one game short of tying the Spurs' 19-game winning streak in March 2014, their last title-winning season.

Since Phoenix went to the NBA Finals and came up short last season, it's easy to see their tear through the league as similar to what San Antonio did on their 2014 revenge tour. The Spurs won 13 of their first 14 games that year to set the tone for what was to come in the postseason. They were 17-4 through 21 games while the Suns are now 18-3.

Suns coach Monty Williams was also on the 1996 Spurs team that won 17 straight, so there are plenty of ties to San Antonio overall. But maybe let's revisit the argument that there are that many similarities on the court until Phoenix wins at least one title?

I never thought I'd be looking at Stephen A. Smith as the screaming voice of reason on behalf of the Spurs, but hey, life can be unpredictable sometimes. Good on you, Stephen A.