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What do you remember about the 1990 WCF vs Portland?

54 wins in the regular season and #5 seed in the playoffs...

1st round beat Utah 3-2 including game 5 in Utah (KJ/EJ/TC combined 81 pts)

2nd round smoked the 63 win Lakers 4-1 (despite an epic series by Magic)

WCF vs Portland...

Game 1 @ POR: Blazers 100 - Suns 98
Game 2 @ POR: Blazers 108 - Suns 107
Game 3 @ PHX: Suns 123 - Blazers 89
Game 4 @ PHX: Suns 119 - Blazers 107 (KJ 28/17)
Game 5 @ POR: Blazers 120 - Suns 114
Game 6 @ PHX: Blazers 112 - Suns 109 (KJ only played 14 min??)

Four losses for by a combined 12 points. Outscored them by 34 points and lost the series... How did this happen?

Portland ultimately lost to Detroit in the Finals but that playoff series sounds more frustrating & debilitating than any from the Nash era...

Detroit would have destroyed the Suns though.

I miss being in the playoffs

Calvin Klein wrote:Detroit would have destroyed the Suns though.

Same thing in 05' but I would've rather gone to the Finals.

As I recall Portland was a great rebounding team. The Suns gave up too many offensive rebounds. Sounds familiar?

Our flaws seem to travel thru each generation.

I remember being so pissed off that we blew them away at home but just barely would lose on the road. I remember I was in Rocky Point for Memorial Day weekend and I looked up at the tv when walking in to the bar and say the score Phx 123 Por 89 and was just stoked.

The series was really frustrating overall but it was also an exciting time because KJ was just SO awesome and was only in his THIRD year. I mean, if you really look back at KJ's stats in his second through fifth years, it's pretty unbelievable. In his second year, he averaged 20 and 12. Think about that. NO ONE does anything like that any more. Nash never averaged EITHER of those numbers, much less both. In KJ's third year, he was at 22 and 11. As exciting as the team was with Barkley, he did kind of take KJ out of his game, which was disappointing to me. Much like Kobe has kind of done to Nash (by being ball dominant).

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... ske02.html

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... hst01.html

I think those pre-Barkley teams with KJ on them are often overlooked and it's sometimes forgotten just how awesome KJ was back then, and that we went to two straight WC finals and won just as many games the four years pre Barkley as we did the four years with Barkley.

They were a good team. Adelman had Kersey, Drexler, big Kevin Duckworth, exTerp Buck Williams and Terry Porter. Hated Porter then. We blew game two up there, couldn't put them away then missed the last shot ... limped home and spanked them... but they were too much. They also had that euro guard Drazen Petrovic... one of the first Euros to wake up the NBA before his untimely tragic death.

Ha... I'd almost forgot about that series. Just another chunk of scar tissue.

Horny brought this series up in his presser today. Said they really felt like they had a chance to win the whole thing, Detroit was waiting and he said the Suns had beaten them twice, matched up really well. However... KJ pulled his hammy right before the half of game 6.

phrazbit wrote:Horny brought this series up in his presser today. Said they really felt like they had a chance to win the whole thing, Detroit was waiting and he said the Suns had beaten them twice, matched up really well. However... KJ pulled his hammy right before the half of game 6.

Yeah, it's not talked about much, but that is probably the closest the Suns ever came to winning it all outside of the years they went to the finals, though I guess it's somewhat similar to the 2010 team, losing a heartbreaking conf finals in six games.

I don't know if they were better than the 94, 95, or 07 teams who lost heartbreaking series (in second rounds) to eventual champions, but that team just clicked. Even though we got to the conf finals in 05 and 06 I never really felt we were the better team those years than our opponent.

I wonder if they had won the championship in 90 if they would have still traded for Barkley.

bwgood77 wrote:

phrazbit wrote:Horny brought this series up in his presser today. Said they really felt like they had a chance to win the whole thing, Detroit was waiting and he said the Suns had beaten them twice, matched up really well. However... KJ pulled his hammy right before the half of game 6.

Yeah, it's not talked about much, but that is probably the closest the Suns ever came to winning it all outside of the years they went to the finals, though I guess it's somewhat similar to the 2010 team, losing a heartbreaking conf finals in six games.

I don't know if they were better than the 94, 95, or 07 teams who lost heartbreaking series (in second rounds) to eventual champions, but that team just clicked. Even though we got to the conf finals in 05 and 06 I never really felt we were the better team those years than our opponent.

I wonder if they had won the championship in 90 if they would have still traded for Barkley.

Don't forget about 79'... Lost game 6 & 7 of the WCF's against Seattle who swept Washington in the finals.