It’s easy to say that in hindsight but there was a much different vibe in the moment.
Also that Portland team was really good and really deep. They had just knocked off the 800 lb gorilla that was the Stockton/ Malone (MVP that year) Jazz, coming off back to back finals including beating the Spurs in 5 the previous year (Tim’s rookie season). There was so much trauma from the ghosts of playoffs past - the Strickland pass, Barkley closing the Hemisfair, Run TMC, the Rodman stuff, Hakeem, the fucking Jazz - that you were just waiting for the bottom to fall out.
And the Blazers were cruising in game 1. It wasn’t just the shot that was a miracle, the spurs were down 18 in the third quarter. When Sean hit that shot, everything changed. It gave the Spurs unwavering confidence. You can’t just look at the sweep in a vacuum and say they would win anyway.
Let’s play out a hypothetical where Sheed blocks the shot and the Spurs lose. The Spurs won game 2 by 1 point coming back down 8 in the fourth again. Do they win that game if they lose game 1? I dunno. But it’s not hard to imagine them going back to Portland down 2-0 with their old “oh shit here it comes again mindset” and losing the series. Duncan gets hurt the next season. Then there’s the Kobe / Shaq three peat. Pop who was wildly unpopular after the Bob Hill deal, probably doesn’t survive that many years without a ring. Duncan ends up in fucking Orlando. The team moves to fucking St. Louis or some shit. It sounds ridiculous but it’s not that difficult to imagine that alternate scenario.