Watching the Phoenix Suns attempt to battle back to the NBA Finals for the second straight year will occupy a lot of the sports news over the next two months. Last season, Phoenix appeared to be on its way to its first-ever championship when the Suns took the first two games from the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA finals, but quickly went south. Milwaukee didn’t fold and eventually ran off four straight victories to steal the title from the Suns.
While Phoenix remains without an NBA championship, the Suns have had a few close calls undone by an almost unfair amount of misfortune. Once Phoenix was outdone by an NBA legend, another time the Suns were beaten by a powerhouse team about to head into a several-year-long funk. Here’s a look at how close Phoenix has come close to rewarding its fans with a championship.
Bicentennial Men
Looking at the regular-season record of the 1976 Suns season says very little about how things ended up. Phoenix finished in third place in a weak Western Conference, compiling a 42-40 regular-season record. On the way to their first-ever finals appearances, the Suns upset the second-seeded Seattle SuperSonics in six games before taking down top-seeded Golden State in seven games.
In the finals, Phoenix would find itself facing off against a Boston Celtics team that was the Eastern Conference’s top seed, compiling a 54-28 regular-season record and was also not too far removed from beating the Milwaukee Bucks to win the 1974 NBA title. There was little to indicate Phoenix was a serious challenger, as the Celtics had swept the team’s four-game regular-season series.
However, the finals proved to be much more competitive. Both teams held serve in the first four games. With the series tied at two games apiece, the stage was set for a Game 5 in Boston Garden that would become one of the best games in NBA history. The Celtics won Game 5 128-126 in a triple-overtime playoff game that featured many controversies, with the most notable coming at the end of the second overtime.
John Havlicek put Boston ahead by one by making a shot at the buzzer that sent fans pouring back out on the court. However, it was ruled there were two seconds left on the clock and the Celtics had to be brought back out of the locker room to play out the final two seconds. Phoenix then called a timeout it didn’t have and was hit with a technical.
However, rules at the time awarded Boston a free throw and gave the Suns the ball back. Gar Heard then tied the game with a jumper at the buzzer for Phoenix. However, the Suns’ magic then ran out, as Phoenix never led in the third overtime. Boston would then beat Phoenix in Game 6 to win the title on the road.
Sir Charles gets stung
There were some thoughts the Chicago Bulls were running out of steam by the 1993 NBA Finals. Phoenix, which was the Western Conference’s top team by finishing with a 62-20 record, was hoping to take advantage. The Suns saw their home-court advantage against the Michael Jordan-led Bulls dissipate quickly as Phoenix lost the first two games at home.
However, the Suns would take two of three in Chicago, including a 121-121 triple-overtime victory in Game 3. Phoenix appeared to be in good shape after fighting off elimination in Game 5 and returning home with a chance to win the title with two victories at home. Except 21 points and 17 rebounds from Barkley wouldn’t be enough to propel Phoenix.
The Suns would be stung at home in Game 6 when John Paxson made a 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left to give Chicago a 99-98 victory and secured the Bulls first three-peat.
Sometimes the other guy is just better
Phoenix’s six-game series loss to the Milwaukee Bucks is notable for the other-worldly performance of forward Giannis Antetonkounmpo. In Game 6, Antetonkounmpo tied an NBA finals record by scoring 50 points in the close-out game. It was the most points in a clinching game since Bob Petitt of the St. Louis Hawks did it in 1958.
