Favorite Christmas Day Suns memories

[GMATCallahan]

Since the Suns did not play on Christmas Day for the sixth straight year ... does anyone have any favorite or notable memories of the Suns playing on Christmas?

Ironically, Phoenix playing on Christmas used to—literally—constitute an annual occurrence. For their first nine seasons of existence, the Suns always hosted a Christmas Day game—every Christmas from 1968-1976. Often, they would host the Lakers or the Celtics. I guess that since Phoenix provided the best Christmas weather of any NBA city—especially in those days, before there were any teams in Florida—the NBA viewed the location as a way of scheduling Christmas games while avoiding cold weather.

The Suns returned to playing on Christmas from 1980-1982, although in the last of those years, they actually played at Utah. Ten seasons then came and went before Phoenix again played on Christmas Day—December 25, 1993. With Michael Jordan having suddenly and shockingly retired in October 1993, and with the Suns coming off a memorable NBA Finals appearance six months earlier in what was then the highest-rated NBA Finals in history (since surpassed only once, by the 1998 Utah-Chicago Finals), Phoenix was perhaps the highest-profile team in the league. (Of course, almost all of that "profile" misleadingly went to one player: Charles Barkley.)

The Suns hosted another elite Western Conference contender, the Houston Rockets, on this day, in what turned out to be a preview of the Western Conference Semifinals in May. Phoenix entered the game with an 18-5 record, while Houston was 22-2. In what remains my favorite Christmas Day memory of the Suns, Phoenix routed the Rockets in this NBC game, out-scoring Houston 37-18 in the second quarter to fuel a 111-91 victory. Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson were both at their best: Barkley played 47 minutes and scored 38 points (15-27 FG, 7-9 FT), grabbed 18 rebounds, and tallied 4 assists. Johnson, meanwhile, played 45 minutes and scored 36 points (14-24 FG, 8-10 FT) with 9 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. Indeed, in their four seasons together, this game marked the only occasion where Barkley and Johnson both scored over 30 points in the same game. Newcomer A.C. Green chipped in with 17 points and 14 rebounds, but Barkley and K.J. dominated with their combined 74 points on 29-51 (.569) field goal shooting.

http://www.basketballreference.com/teams/boxscore.htm?yr=1993&b=19931225&tm=PHO

K.J. was one of the best shooters in NBA history off a high-velocity dribble (or any dribble, actually), and this game constituted a classic example of him flying up the right side of the court on the break or in transition and, if a better opportunity for a teammate did not arise, stopping on a dime, elevating, and ripping the nets with his jump-shot.

This game would be a harbinger of how Kevin Johnson would fare versus Houston in the playoffs later that year. In the seven-game 1994 Western Conference Semifinals, K.J. would average 26.6 points and 9.7 assists, including 34.7 points, 12.3 assists, a .481 field goal percentage, and a .931 free throw percentage in 9.7 free throw attempts over the three games in Phoenix in that series. Overall, in five home games versus the Rockets that year, counting both the regular season and the postseason, K.J. averaged 31.0 points, 12.2 assists, a .504 field goal percentage, and an .863 free throw percentage—against the team, in Houston, that ranked second in the NBA in Defensive Rating (points allowed per possession) and that featured one of the best defensive front-courts of all-time with Hakeem Olajuwon flanked by Otis Thorpe and a second-year Robert Horry.

Unfortunately, the Christmas Day game would not be a harbinger of how the Suns would fare versus the Rockets in that year's postseason. After winning the first two games of the series in Houston and leading Game Three at home by 14 points after the first quarter, by 8 points at halftime, and by 10 points with ten minutes to play in the third quarter, the Suns spiraled and ended up losing the series in seven games, with that outcome repeating itself the next year. But on Christmas Day 1993, the sky seemed to be the limit for the Suns.

Two years later, on December 25, 1995, the Suns again hosted a Christmas Day NBC game, this time against the San Antonio Spurs, who had won a league-best 62 games the previous season. I imagine that I watched this game, but for some reason, I have no memory of it whatsoever. The Suns were undermanned. The late John "Hot Rod" Williams was out due to injury, as was Danny Manning, as was Kevin Johnson, who by this time was dealing with two undiagnosed sports hernias (tears in his abdominal wall). And they were facing a healthy Spurs team that would win 59 regular season games in '95-'96. Despite being shorthanded, Phoenix led 97-93 with just over three minutes to play. Then Wesley Person air-balled an open eight-foot baseline jumper and the Spurs won going away.

http://www.basketballreference.com/teams/boxscore.htm?yr=1995&b=19951225&tm=PHO

The Suns played on Christmas Day again the next year on December 25, 1996, giving them two Christmas games in a row and three in four years. Phoenix hosted the Lakers, who had just inked a twenty-four-year old Shaquille O'Neal in free agency the previous summer. Meanwhile, the Suns had dealt Charles Barkley to the Houston Rockets for four players.

The Lakers blew out the Suns in this game, but there were some ironies to the result.

http://www.basketballreference.com/teams/boxscore.htm?yr=1996&b=19961225&tm=PHO

First, at one point during the game, Steve "Snapper" Jones on the NBC telecast noted that the Suns needed the "electric" Kevin Johnson—the guy from Christmas Day three years ago, basically. And now, in his tenth season, which he planned to be his last, there seemed to be some doubt as to whether K.J. could still be that guy. Despite playing with the two sports hernias that imperiled his upper leg muscles, Johnson had constituted the second-best guard in the NBA, behind Michael Jordan, over the second half of the '95-'96 regular season, averaging 19.9 points, 10.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds, 1.6 steals, a 3.3:1.0 assists-to-turnover ratio, a .528 field goal percentage (13.0 FGA), a .368 three-point field goal percentage (1.1 FGA), an .874 free throw percentage (6.6 FTA), and a .625 True Shooting Percentage over his final 36 games. But when summer workouts and rehabilitation failed to alleviate the pain in his abdomen, the Suns' doctors finally diagnosed him with a sports hernia, and K.J. underwent surgery just as training camp opened that fall. During the surgery, the doctors discovered and repaired another hernia, one that had been there for four years—the team's doctors had initially suspected it when Johnson suffered the original injury in October 1992, but then they mistakenly downgraded the injury to a strained groin.

Since the Suns had not won a game as Thanksgiving approached in 1996, K.J. returned to action two or three days after returning to practice—having not had a training camp or a preseason. Normally in that situation, a player would practice for two or three weeks before returning in order to get into basketball shape and develop continuity, especially since the Suns had added several new players. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

K.J. scored 34 points on 17 field goal attempts in his second game back, and Phoenix finally recorded its first win of the season in his third game back (which also happened to be "Hot Rod" Williams' second game back). After starting the season 0-13, the Suns won eight of their next eleven games. The blowout Christmas loss to the Lakers, however, represented a third straight Phoenix defeat, dropping the Suns' record to 8-19. Johnson was averaging 8.0 assists in 30.3 minutes per contest (in 16 games, in which the Suns were 8-8), but his shooting was rusty after the surgery and layoff, his field goal percentage sitting at .425 and his free throw percentage at .728, leaving his scoring average at 13.8. As Jones noted on Christmas on NBC, he was not the "electric" Kevin Johnson a month after returning from the surgery—not yet, anyway.

There was one play during that Christmas game where Jones noticed something else, though. There was a play, after the whistle, where K.J. exploded to the rim, and Jones—rather surprised—said something like, "That was kind of like when he dunked on Hakeem Olajuwon," referring to the 1994 playoffs. In other words, amid a disappointing loss to the Lakers, there was something lurking that might have contradicted the gloomy overall appearance.

But the organizational imperative was one of change. The very next day, on December 26, 1996, the Suns traded Sam Cassell, Michael Finley, A.C. Green, and a second-round pick to Dallas for point guard Jason Kidd and two throw-ins (Loren Meyer and Tony Dumas).

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n2GOCcJ_g0[/youtube]

Yet Kidd fractured his collarbone at the end of the first half of his first game as a Sun, at Vancouver, a game that K.J. missed due to the flu. Kidd would miss the next 22 games.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iYo84oYT-I[/youtube]

With his hernias repaired and his legs now under him, K.J. played in each of the Suns' final 54 games, averaging 40.2 minutes per contest. He also averaged 22.0 points, 9.7 assists, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 steals, a 3.0:1.0 assists-to-turnover ratio, and a .513 field goal percentage (13.3 FGA), .446 three-point field goal percentage (3.4 FGA), and .879 free throw percentage (7.8 FTA) for an absurdly high .659 True Shooting Percentage. He was, by far, the second-best guard in the league that season after Jordan. Jason Kidd eventually returned to join Johnson in what arguably comprised the best two-point guard duo ever, the Suns won eleven straight games late in the season, they reached 40 wins, and they made the playoffs. They had seemed dead in the water on Christmas on NBC, but they were far from dead overall.

After 1996, the Suns would again go ten seasons in a row without playing on Christmas. By the time that they returned, on December 25, 2007, the Mike D'Antoni era had already peaked. For the previous three seasons, there had been three legitimate championship contenders in the Western Conference: the San Antonio Spurs, the Dallas Mavericks, and the Phoenix Suns. But by December 2007, something had changed in the Pacific Division, even though the Suns entered the game in first place with a two-game lead over Los Angeles. The Lakers were resurgent, and the Suns—while still highly successful—were fraying. Shawn Marion—disgruntled after being told by new general manager Steve Kerr that he was not worth a maximum contract extension, wanted out, and head coach Mike D'Antoni eventually felt that Marion had to go for the sake of the team. Thus the Suns would trade him for Shaquille O'Neal—who was on the verge of turning thirty-six and not nearly what he had been when Phoenix faced him on Christmas Day in 1996.

That transaction was still six weeks away when the Suns played at Los Angeles on Christmas in 2007. Marion posted 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Steve Nash performed commendably with 24 points (8-18 from the field, 5-10 on threes), 14 assists, 3 steals, and just 3 turnovers. But the Suns yielded 97 points over the final three quarters.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200712250LAL.html

And that spring, they would fall in the First Round to San Antonio.

The following Christmas, on December 25, 2008, the Suns hosted the Spurs. Phoenix's new head coach was Terry Porter, and he was willing to appease Amar'e Stoudemire's desire to become more of a self-created or one-on-one scorer rather than just a pick-and-roll finisher. The problem was that Stoudemire did not possess a secure handle and did not offer much in the way of one-on-one moves that fostered space and separation. Time after time late in the game, the Suns isolated Stoudemire against Tim Duncan. Time after time, Stoudemire could not score.

Still, Phoenix was in position to win, up by two points in the final few seconds as the Spurs' Tony Parker could not generate an angle to the basket and was dribbling toward the baseline, cut off from the hoop. Nonetheless, new acquisition Jason Richardson left a three-point shooter, Roger Mason Jr., open in the left corner to needlessly help on Parker. The San Antonio point guard made a short, easy pass to Mason in the corner. His shot was still in the air as the red lights flashed to signal the game's end, but one could already tell that the Suns had lost.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4NbhRb862k[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPfo_v9VRek[/youtube]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200812250PHO.html

Phoenix would miss the playoffs that season for the first time since 2004.

The Suns, however, would play on Christmas for a third consecutive season on December 25, 2009, this time hosting the Clippers with their third head coach in three Christmases: Alvin Gentry. Phoenix won by 31 points, 124-93, showcasing an explosive bench.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200912250PHO.html

That bench, combined with a league-leading .412 three-point field goal percentage as a team, propelled the Suns to a franchise record Offensive Rating of 115.3 (points scored per 100 possessions) and a berth in the Western Conference Finals.

The Suns have not played on Christmas since, and they have not made the playoffs since.

Merry Christmas.

[bwgood77]

K.J. was one of the best shooters in NBA history off a high-velocity dribble (or any dribble, actually), and this game constituted a classic example of him flying up the right side of the court on the break or in transition and, if a better opportunity for a teammate did not arise, stopping on a dime, elevating, and ripping the nets with his jump-shot.

I loved this. And I grew up with it. It was amazing the he could be flying down the court so fast, look at his options, and then just stop and shoot and swish.....no iso....that was it.

That to me was one of the big differences between him and Nash...if Nash didn't see it he would still drive the lane, and if it then wasn't open he would jump in the air and hope to find someone to pass it to.

KJ seemed to see things well ahead of time or just anticipate well. I'm sure I will have more responses, because I am a short way through the post, but if there are certain things I want to respond to I will stop and respond when something comes to mind. In the trade thread I asked someone else how they though KJ compared to Chris Paul, and I wonder your take on that as well..you can post in that thread..since I asked it there or here, since I asked it here and I'm guessing there will not be a lot of responses here, and not because it isn't a fantastic post, but because you are so thorough, I don't know if anyone would add anything else.

[bwgood77]

After winning the first two games of the series in Houston and leading Game Three at home by 14 points after the first quarter, by 8 points at halftime, and by 10 points with ten minutes to play in the third quarter, the Suns spiraled and ended up losing the series in seven games, with that outcome repeating itself the next year.

Painful to read. I didn't really expect to win this series going into it....I mean obviously they were the higher seed and stuff and I thought we were incredibly lucky to win the first game....it seems like we were down big and made a huge comeback in the first game, and then I don't remember the second as well as I was pretty young.

I DEFINITELY don't remember us being up by those amounts in game three though. But I felt they were simply better that year, kind of like I felt the Spurs were better in 2005. But I did feel we were the better team in 95 against Houston and 97 against SA.

K.J. played in each of the Suns' final 54 games, averaging 40.2 minutes per contest. He also averaged 22.0 points, 9.7 assists, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 steals, a 3.0:1.0 assists-to-turnover ratio, and a .513 field goal percentage (13.3 FGA), .446 three-point field goal percentage (3.4 FGA), and .879 free throw percentage (7.8 FTA) for an absurdly high .659 True Shooting Percentage. He was, by far, the second-best guard in the league that season after Jordan. Jason Kidd eventually returned to join Johnson in what arguably comprised the best two-point guard duo ever

Those stats are unheard of. I honestly can't even imagine someone averaging those stats today other than maybe Curry.

[rsavaj]

Since the Suns did not play on Christmas Day for the sixth straight year ... does anyone have any favorite or notable memories of the Suns playing on Christmas?

Ironically, Phoenix playing on Christmas used to—literally—constitute an annual occurrence. For their first nine seasons of existence, the Suns always hosted a Christmas Day game—every Christmas from 1968-1976. Often, they would host the Lakers or the Celtics. I guess that since Phoenix provided the best Christmas weather of any NBA city—especially in those days, before there were any teams in Florida—the NBA viewed the location as a way of scheduling Christmas games while avoiding cold weather.

The Suns returned to playing on Christmas from 1980-1982, although in the last of those years, they actually played at Utah. Ten seasons then came and went before Phoenix again played on Christmas Day—December 25, 1993. With Michael Jordan having suddenly and shockingly retired in October 1993, and with the Suns coming off a memorable NBA Finals appearance six months earlier in what was then the highest-rated NBA Finals in history (since surpassed only once, by the 1998 Utah-Chicago Finals), Phoenix was perhaps the highest-profile team in the league. (Of course, almost all of that "profile" misleadingly went to one player: Charles Barkley.)

The Suns hosted another elite Western Conference contender, the Houston Rockets, on this day, in what turned out to be a preview of the Western Conference Semifinals in May. Phoenix entered the game with an 18-5 record, while Houston was 22-2. In what remains my favorite Christmas Day memory of the Suns, Phoenix routed the Rockets in this NBC game, out-scoring Houston 37-18 in the second quarter to fuel a 111-91 victory. Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson were both at their best: Barkley played 47 minutes and scored 38 points (15-27 FG, 7-9 FT), grabbed 18 rebounds, and tallied 4 assists. Johnson, meanwhile, played 45 minutes and scored 36 points (14-24 FG, 8-10 FT) with 9 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. Indeed, in their four seasons together, this game marked the only occasion where Barkley and Johnson both scored over 30 points in the same game. Newcomer A.C. Green chipped in with 17 points and 14 rebounds, but Barkley and K.J. dominated with their combined 74 points on 29-51 (.569) field goal shooting.

http://www.basketballreference.com/teams/boxscore.htm?yr=1993&b=19931225&tm=PHO

K.J. was one of the best shooters in NBA history off a high-velocity dribble (or any dribble, actually), and this game constituted a classic example of him flying up the right side of the court on the break or in transition and, if a better opportunity for a teammate did not arise, stopping on a dime, elevating, and ripping the nets with his jump-shot.

This game would be a harbinger of how Kevin Johnson would fare versus Houston in the playoffs later that year. In the seven-game 1994 Western Conference Semifinals, K.J. would average 26.6 points and 9.7 assists, including 34.7 points, 12.3 assists, a .481 field goal percentage, and a .931 free throw percentage in 9.7 free throw attempts over the three games in Phoenix in that series. Overall, in five home games versus the Rockets that year, counting both the regular season and the postseason, K.J. averaged 31.0 points, 12.2 assists, a .504 field goal percentage, and an .863 free throw percentage—against the team, in Houston, that ranked second in the NBA in Defensive Rating (points allowed per possession) and that featured one of the best defensive front-courts of all-time with Hakeem Olajuwon flanked by Otis Thorpe and a second-year Robert Horry.

Unfortunately, the Christmas Day game would not be a harbinger of how the Suns would fare versus the Rockets in that year's postseason. After winning the first two games of the series in Houston and leading Game Three at home by 14 points after the first quarter, by 8 points at halftime, and by 10 points with ten minutes to play in the third quarter, the Suns spiraled and ended up losing the series in seven games, with that outcome repeating itself the next year. But on Christmas Day 1993, the sky seemed to be the limit for the Suns.

Two years later, on December 25, 1995, the Suns again hosted a Christmas Day NBC game, this time against the San Antonio Spurs, who had won a league-best 62 games the previous season. I imagine that I watched this game, but for some reason, I have no memory of it whatsoever. The Suns were undermanned. The late John "Hot Rod" Williams was out due to injury, as was Danny Manning, as was Kevin Johnson, who by this time was dealing with two undiagnosed sports hernias (tears in his abdominal wall). And they were facing a healthy Spurs team that would win 59 regular season games in '95-'96. Despite being shorthanded, Phoenix led 97-93 with just over three minutes to play. Then Wesley Person air-balled an open eight-foot baseline jumper and the Spurs won going away.

http://www.basketballreference.com/teams/boxscore.htm?yr=1995&b=19951225&tm=PHO

The Suns played on Christmas Day again the next year on December 25, 1996, giving them two Christmas games in a row and three in four years. Phoenix hosted the Lakers, who had just inked a twenty-four-year old Shaquille O'Neal in free agency the previous summer. Meanwhile, the Suns had dealt Charles Barkley to the Houston Rockets for four players.

The Lakers blew out the Suns in this game, but there were some ironies to the result.

http://www.basketballreference.com/teams/boxscore.htm?yr=1996&b=19961225&tm=PHO

First, at one point during the game, Steve "Snapper" Jones on the NBC telecast noted that the Suns needed the "electric" Kevin Johnson—the guy from Christmas Day three years ago, basically. And now, in his tenth season, which he planned to be his last, there seemed to be some doubt as to whether K.J. could still be that guy. Despite playing with the two sports hernias that imperiled his upper leg muscles, Johnson had constituted the second-best guard in the NBA, behind Michael Jordan, over the second half of the '95-'96 regular season, averaging 19.9 points, 10.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds, 1.6 steals, a 3.3:1.0 assists-to-turnover ratio, a .528 field goal percentage (13.0 FGA), a .368 three-point field goal percentage (1.1 FGA), an .874 free throw percentage (6.6 FTA), and a .625 True Shooting Percentage over his final 36 games. But when summer workouts and rehabilitation failed to alleviate the pain in his abdomen, the Suns' doctors finally diagnosed him with a sports hernia, and K.J. underwent surgery just as training camp opened that fall. During the surgery, the doctors discovered and repaired another hernia, one that had been there for four years—the team's doctors had initially suspected it when Johnson suffered the original injury in October 1992, but then they mistakenly downgraded the injury to a strained groin.

Since the Suns had not won a game as Thanksgiving approached in 1996, K.J. returned to action two or three days after returning to practice—having not had a training camp or a preseason. Normally in that situation, a player would practice for two or three weeks before returning in order to get into basketball shape and develop continuity, especially since the Suns had added several new players. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

K.J. scored 34 points on 17 field goal attempts in his second game back, and Phoenix finally recorded its first win of the season in his third game back (which also happened to be "Hot Rod" Williams' second game back). After starting the season 0-13, the Suns won eight of their next eleven games. The blowout Christmas loss to the Lakers, however, represented a third straight Phoenix defeat, dropping the Suns' record to 8-19. Johnson was averaging 8.0 assists in 30.3 minutes per contest (in 16 games, in which the Suns were 8-8), but his shooting was rusty after the surgery and layoff, his field goal percentage sitting at .425 and his free throw percentage at .728, leaving his scoring average at 13.8. As Jones noted on Christmas on NBC, he was not the "electric" Kevin Johnson a month after returning from the surgery—not yet, anyway.

There was one play during that Christmas game where Jones noticed something else, though. There was a play, after the whistle, where K.J. exploded to the rim, and Jones—rather surprised—said something like, "That was kind of like when he dunked on Hakeem Olajuwon," referring to the 1994 playoffs. In other words, amid a disappointing loss to the Lakers, there was something lurking that might have contradicted the gloomy overall appearance.

But the organizational imperative was one of change. The very next day, on December 26, 1996, the Suns traded Sam Cassell, Michael Finley, A.C. Green, and a second-round pick to Dallas for point guard Jason Kidd and two throw-ins (Loren Meyer and Tony Dumas).

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n2GOCcJ_g0[/youtube]

Yet Kidd fractured his collarbone at the end of the first half of his first game as a Sun, at Vancouver, a game that K.J. missed due to the flu. Kidd would miss the next 22 games.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iYo84oYT-I[/youtube]

With his hernias repaired and his legs now under him, K.J. played in each of the Suns' final 54 games, averaging 40.2 minutes per contest. He also averaged 22.0 points, 9.7 assists, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 steals, a 3.0:1.0 assists-to-turnover ratio, and a .513 field goal percentage (13.3 FGA), .446 three-point field goal percentage (3.4 FGA), and .879 free throw percentage (7.8 FTA) for an absurdly high .659 True Shooting Percentage. He was, by far, the second-best guard in the league that season after Jordan. Jason Kidd eventually returned to join Johnson in what arguably comprised the best two-point guard duo ever, the Suns won eleven straight games late in the season, they reached 40 wins, and they made the playoffs. They had seemed dead in the water on Christmas on NBC, but they were far from dead overall.

After 1996, the Suns would again go ten seasons in a row without playing on Christmas. By the time that they returned, on December 25, 2007, the Mike D'Antoni era had already peaked. For the previous three seasons, there had been three legitimate championship contenders in the Western Conference: the San Antonio Spurs, the Dallas Mavericks, and the Phoenix Suns. But by December 2007, something had changed in the Pacific Division, even though the Suns entered the game in first place with a two-game lead over Los Angeles. The Lakers were resurgent, and the Suns—while still highly successful—were fraying. Shawn Marion—disgruntled after being told by new general manager Steve Kerr that he was not worth a maximum contract extension, wanted out, and head coach Mike D'Antoni eventually felt that Marion had to go for the sake of the team. Thus the Suns would trade him for Shaquille O'Neal—who was on the verge of turning thirty-five and not nearly what he had been when Phoenix faced him on Christmas Day in 1996.

That transaction was still six weeks away when the Suns played at Los Angeles on Christmas in 2007. Marion posted 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Steve Nash performed commendably with 24 points (8-18 from the field, 5-10 on threes), 14 assists, 3 steals, and just 3 turnovers. But the Suns yielded 97 points over the final three quarters.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200712250LAL.html

And that spring, they would fall in the First Round to San Antonio.

The following Christmas, on December 25, 2008, the Suns hosted the Spurs. Phoenix's new head coach was Terry Porter, and he was willing to appease Amar'e Stoudemire's desire to become more of a self-created or one-on-one scorer rather than just a pick-and-roll finisher. The problem was that Stoudemire did not possess a secure handle and did not offer much in the way of one-on-one moves that fostered space and separation. Time after time late in the game, the Suns isolated Stoudemire against Tim Duncan. Time after time, Stoudemire could not score.

Still, Phoenix was in position to win, up by two points in the final few seconds as the Spurs' Tony Parker could not generate an angle to the basket and was dribbling toward the baseline, cut off from the hoop. Nonetheless, new acquisition Jason Richardson left a three-point shooter, Roger Mason Jr., open in the left corner to needlessly help on Parker. The San Antonio point guard made a short, easy pass to Mason in the corner. His shot was still in the air as the red lights flashed to signal the game's end, but one could already tell that the Suns had lost.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4NbhRb862k[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPfo_v9VRek[/youtube]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200812250PHO.html

Phoenix would miss the playoffs that season for the first time since 2004.

The Suns, however, would play on Christmas for a third consecutive season on December 25, 2009, this time hosting the Clippers with their third head coach in three Christmases: Alvin Gentry. Phoenix won by 31 points, 124-93, showcasing an explosive bench.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200912250PHO.html


That bench, combined with a league-leading .412 three-point field goal percentage as a team, propelled the Suns to a franchise record Offensive Rating of 115.3 (points scored per 100 possessions) and a berth in the Western Conference Finals.

The Suns have not played on Christmas since, and they have not made the playoffs since.

Merry Christmas.

You need to be writing like a regular Suns history column or a book or something. I love reading this stuff.

[RaisingArizona]

I miss being good enough to have a national game on Christmas. Tired of seeing the same teams in the national spotlight.

[GMATCallahan]

K.J. played in each of the Suns' final 54 games, averaging 40.2 minutes per contest. He also averaged 22.0 points, 9.7 assists, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 steals, a 3.0:1.0 assists-to-turnover ratio, and a .513 field goal percentage (13.3 FGA), .446 three-point field goal percentage (3.4 FGA), and .879 free throw percentage (7.8 FTA) for an absurdly high .659 True Shooting Percentage. He was, by far, the second-best guard in the league that season after Jordan. Jason Kidd eventually returned to join Johnson in what arguably comprised the best two-point guard duo ever

Those stats are unheard of. I honestly can't even imagine someone averaging those stats today other than maybe Curry.

... funny that you should say that, because entering tonight's play, Curry was shooting ... .513 from the field (19.8 FGA), .445 on threes (10.4 FGA), and .905 from the free throw line (6.5 FTA). Naturally, because he shoots so many threes, Curry's True Shooting Percentage was even higher at an exorbitant .680.

But the comparison is not that coincidental. The reason why Kevin Johnson's numbers were what they were—the reason why he combined efficiency and explosiveness better than any small guard in NBA history and why he was thus arguably the best small guard ever for prime or peak value—was largely because he proved excellent at creating good looks for teammates, shooting off the dribble, reaching the foul line, and finishing with his off (left) hand—excellence in all four areas. K.J. was easily one of the ten best guards in history at all four aspects and probably one of the five or six best guards at all four aspects—in some cases even higher. Most "star" guards, including guys who are or will be in the Hall of Fame, such as Gary Payton, Jason Kidd, and Allen Iverson, only excelled in one of the four areas (at best), which helps explain why they were relatively or extremely inefficient—and overrated—offensive players. A smaller number of "elite" guards, such as John Stockton and Chris Paul, have consistently excelled at two of those aspects. Steve Nash excelled at three of them, which is very rare. But to excel in all four areas, as Kevin Johnson did, is perhaps unique. Michael Jordan—the greatest guard ever—might meet the criteria. He obviously excelled at shooting off the dribble, reaching the foul line, and finishing with his off hand, and he constituted a fine passer to boot. But he certainly was not one of, say, the ten best guards in history at creating good looks for teammates, because while he was highly capable in that regard, it was not the nature of his game. Jordan was a scoring machine, and since he combined extreme scoring efficiency with extreme scoring volume, he could render an offense efficient just by virtue of his own scoring. The fact that he did not force shots in the manner of Kobe Bryant, and would instead move the ball, made him even better. But, naturally, Jordan was not quite a maestro as a facilitator (nor did he need to be).

The only guard playing today who offers a case for excellence in all four areas would indeed seem to be Curry. But while he is a fine, nifty passer with good court awareness, his assists-to-turnover ratio this season (1.69:1.00) is basically the same as Eric Blesdoe's (1.73:1.00). He does not quite pass with the precision and rhythm of, say, Magic Johnson, John Stockton, or Kevin Johnson (the three all-time leaders in assists per start), and he is not a true point guard—rather, he is Reggie Miller (or, heck, his father, Dell Curry) recalibrated as a point guard, which is scary. That recalibration renders him the best offensive player in the game today and one of the best offensive guards of all-time, but he is not necessarily an elite playmaker right now, let alone historically. Thus he would appear to come up slightly short in this regard (excellence in all four areas), yet he appears to come much closer than any other current guard.

Indeed, Curry and K.J. both make this very exclusive list: who are the only players in NBA history to post a season where they averaged at least 20.0 points per game, 7.0 assists per game, and a .630 True Shooting Percentage?

Wilt Chamberlain in '66-'67, Dana Barros in '94-'95, Kevin Johnson in '96-'97, LeBron James in '12-'13, and Stephen Curry in '14-'15.

http://bkref.com/tiny/GFqsF

Chamberlain and James were obviously much bigger players, so in terms of guards, you have Barros, K.J., and Curry. Barros may be the surprising name, but he was a quick waterbug with a lighting jumper and exceptional range. In a recent Open Court episode, Kenny Smith has talked about how much trouble Barros could be. Of course, when Barros enjoyed his season in '94-'95, he was doing it for a 24-win Philadelphia club that ranked twenty-fifth among twenty-seven teams in Offensive Rating (points scored per possession), so he could run amuck. He ran amuck very efficiently, but he did not make the players around him better.

Indeed, only one player in NBA history has averaged at least 20.0 points, 8.0 assists, and a .630 True Shooting Percentage in the same season, and that would be Kevin Johnson in '96-'97, who averaged upwards of 9.0 assists that year (as he did for his career).

http://bkref.com/tiny/TjQip

No one else has really come that close to a 20.0/9.0/.630 season. Kevin Johnson recorded a unique season in '96-'97, and while I could cite other numbers, the following anecdote summarizes the uniqueness more than anything: K.J. averaged more assists per game than Jason Kidd (even while he was playing on the same team as Kidd) and Rod Strickland; he shot a higher three-point field goal percentage than Joe Dumars, Reggie Miller, Mitch Richmond, and Dell Curry; and he averaged more free throw attempts per game than Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson. And the reason why K.J. posted that unique set of numbers and trumped all those players in all those categories at the same time is because, again, no one else combined excellence in all four of the areas that I cited earlier quite like him. Frankly, almost no one else has come remotely close.

By the way, in case anyone imagines that K.J.'s '96-'97 season might have represented a fluke, only three players have averaged at least 18.0 points, 9.0 assists, and a .610 True Shooting Percentage in the same season: Steve Nash (twice), Kevin Johnson (twice, with the other such season of his coming in '95-'96), and Magic Johnson (five times). Magic, of course, was 6'8" and a tremendous post-up player.

http://bkref.com/tiny/1FprJ

And who has averaged at least 18.0 points, 9.0 assists, and a .600 True Shooting Percentage in the same season?

Steve Nash (twice), Kevin Johnson (three times), Magic Johnson (six times), and Eric "Sleepy" Floyd (once):

http://bkref.com/tiny/r8Gef

[bwgood77]

Spoiler:

K.J. played in each of the Suns' final 54 games, averaging 40.2 minutes per contest. He also averaged 22.0 points, 9.7 assists, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 steals, a 3.0:1.0 assists-to-turnover ratio, and a .513 field goal percentage (13.3 FGA), .446 three-point field goal percentage (3.4 FGA), and .879 free throw percentage (7.8 FTA) for an absurdly high .659 True Shooting Percentage. He was, by far, the second-best guard in the league that season after Jordan. Jason Kidd eventually returned to join Johnson in what arguably comprised the best two-point guard duo ever

Those stats are unheard of. I honestly can't even imagine someone averaging those stats today other than maybe Curry.

... funny that you should say that, because entering tonight's play, Curry was shooting ... .513 from the field (19.8 FGA), .445 on threes (10.4 FGA), and .905 from the free throw line (6.5 FTA). Naturally, because he shoots so many threes, Curry's True Shooting Percentage was even higher at an exorbitant .680.

But the comparison is not that coincidental. The reason why Kevin Johnson's numbers were what they were—the reason why he combined efficiency and explosiveness better than any small guard in NBA history and why he was thus arguably the best small guard ever for prime or peak value—was largely because he proved excellent at creating good looks for teammates, shooting off the dribble, reaching the foul line, and finishing with his off (left) hand—excellence in all four areas. K.J. was easily one of the ten best guards in history at all four aspects and probably one of the five or six best guards at all four aspects—in some cases even higher. Most "star" guards, including guys who are or will be in the Hall of Fame, such as Gary Payton, Jason Kidd, and Allen Iverson, only excelled in one of the four areas (at best), which helps explain why they were relatively or extremely inefficient—and overrated—offensive players. A smaller number of "elite" guards, such as John Stockton and Chris Paul, have consistently excelled at two of those aspects. Steve Nash excelled at three of them, which is very rare. But to excel in all four areas, as Kevin Johnson did, is perhaps unique. Michael Jordan—the greatest guard ever—might meet the criteria. He obviously excelled at shooting off the dribble, reaching the foul line, and finishing with his off hand, and he constituted a fine passer to boot. But he certainly was not one of, say, the ten best guards in history at creating good looks for teammates, because while he was highly capable in that regard, it was not the nature of his game. Jordan was a scoring machine, and since he combined extreme scoring efficiency with extreme scoring volume, he could render an offense efficient just by virtue of his own scoring. The fact that he did not force shots in the manner of Kobe Bryant, and would instead move the ball, made him even better. But, naturally, Jordan was not quite a maestro as a facilitator (nor did he need to be).

The only guard playing today who offers a case for excellence in all four areas would indeed seem to be Curry. But while he is a fine, nifty passer with good court awareness, his assists-to-turnover ratio this season (1.69:1.00) is basically the same as Eric Blesdoe's (1.73:1.00). He does not quite pass with the precision and rhythm of, say, Magic Johnson, John Stockton, or Kevin Johnson (the three all-time leaders in assists per start), and he is not a true point guard—rather, he is Reggie Miller (or, heck, his father, Dell Curry) recalibrated as a point guard, which is scary. That recalibration renders him the best offensive player in the game today and one of the best offensive guards of all-time, but he is not necessarily an elite playmaker right now, let alone historically. Thus he would appear to come up slightly short in this regard (excellence in all four areas), yet he appears to come much closer than any other current guard.

Indeed, Curry and K.J. both make this very exclusive list: who are the only players in NBA history to post a season where they averaged at least 20.0 points per game, 7.0 assists per game, and a .630 True Shooting Percentage?

Wilt Chamberlain in '66-'67, Dana Barros in '94-'95, Kevin Johnson in '96-'97, LeBron James in '12-'13, and Stephen Curry in '14-'15.

http://bkref.com/tiny/GFqsF

Chamberlain and James were obviously much bigger players, so in terms of guards, you have Barros, K.J., and Curry. Barros may be the surprising name, but he was a quick waterbug with a lighting jumper and exceptional range. In a recent Open Court episode, Kenny Smith has talked about how much trouble Barros could be. Of course, when Barros enjoyed his season in '94-'95, he was doing it for a 24-win Philadelphia club that ranked twenty-fifth among twenty-seven teams in Offensive Rating (points scored per possession), so he could run amuck. He ran amuck very efficiently, but he did not make the players around him better.

Indeed, only one player in NBA history has averaged at least 20.0 points, 8.0 assists, and a .630 True Shooting Percentage in the same season, and that would be Kevin Johnson in '96-'97, who averaged upwards of 9.0 assists that year (as he did for his career).

http://bkref.com/tiny/TjQip

No one else has really come that close to a 20.0/9.0/.630 season. Kevin Johnson recorded a unique season in '96-'97, and while I could cite other numbers, the following anecdote summarizes the uniqueness more than anything: K.J. averaged more assists per game than Jason Kidd (even while he was playing on the same team as Kidd) and Rod Strickland; he shot a higher three-point field goal percentage than Joe Dumars, Reggie Miller, Mitch Richmond, and Dell Curry; and he averaged more free throw attempts per game than Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson. And the reason why K.J. posted that unique set of numbers and trumped all those players in all those categories at the same time is because, again, no one else combined excellence in all four of the areas that I cited earlier quite like him. Frankly, almost no one else has come remotely close.

By the way, in case anyone imagines that K.J.'s '96-'97 season might have represented a fluke, only three players have averaged at least 18.0 points, 9.0 assists, and a .610 True Shooting Percentage in the same season: Steve Nash (twice), Kevin Johnson (twice, with the other such season of his coming in '95-'96), and Magic Johnson (five times). Magic, of course, was 6'8" and a tremendous post-up player.

http://bkref.com/tiny/1FprJ

And who has averaged at least 18.0 points, 9.0 assists, and a .600 True Shooting Percentage in the same season?

Steve Nash (twice), Kevin Johnson (three times), Magic Johnson (six times), and Eric "Sleepy" Floyd (once):

http://bkref.com/tiny/r8Gef

Yeah, I've researched it enough to know, at his peak, he was as good as any PG ever. I think I hold him in such regard because I didn't really start seriously watching a lot of basketball until about 88-89, and that was his first great season, and it was so great to watch those seasons. I feel bad for all the fans who became fans in 93 (I see this a lot) because they really missed the best of KJ....those teams were VERY close, particularly in the first two years of that 4 year stretch before Barkley. Barkley was needed, though I really wish he would have allowed KJ to control the offense at all times. I really don't think it would have impacted Barkley's stats other than maybe assists, and he likely would have scored more.

Nash had the longevity, but I don't really think any of his peak years were as good as those four KJ peak years. I know he won MVP, but there was no MJ, Magic or Bird in the league either.

[saintEscaton]

I'm hoping that a decade from now we will become relevant enough to break our drought and get on primetime during Yuletide. Setting the bar low so I won't be crushed