This was an exhausting opening series for Phoenix. Despite coming into the playoffs with 62 wins and the top overall seed, the Suns needed Oliver Miller of all people to squeak by an ever so pesky Lakers squad that just didn’t want to end their season just yet.
These were teams in very different stages of their roster build. Phoenix had the right mix of stars, complimentary vets and impactful rookies that coalesced into a Charles Barkley MVP and the best Suns team many of us younger fans had ever seen. Beginning the previous summer in Barcelona, Chuck started to shed the damaging image of a malcontent brawler into a focused superstar with perhaps the most unique game in the league. This was the crest of his development as a player and he found the perfect balance between his go-to core strength and his refined passing and jump shooting.
The Lakers, on the other hand, were like the Celtics in that they found themselves with a gaping void where a hall-of-famer had resided for over a decade. Magic had the whole HIV thing, the comeback, the Dream Team and now he was either stumbling through calling games as a color commentator or goofing around with Arsenio courtside. James Worthy was still there but firmly accepting the twilight of a glorious career by that point. Byron Scott had publicly announced he would not be returning to LA the next year, making for an awkward last run with the Lake Show. And then there were the relatively new guys to the cast: a young Vlade Divac coming into his own, a younger Elden Campbell that could jump over many defenders, a scrappy new Doug Christie, a hurt Anthony Peeler. Mix in a trigger-happy Sedale Threatt running point and you have a strange group of characters that slogged through a underwhelming regular season (39-43).
Yet when these two ships passing in the night bumped into one another in the first round, it made for a very quality five games of spirited play by LA and nervous energy from Phoenix.
Sir Charles
Now 27 years later, it’s easy to forget what Charles Barkley the basketball player was really like. The man has become such a generally warm-hearted public character of smiles and chubbiness, that to take him seriously as anything fierce is almost silly. But in 1993, when Chuck would sprint down the court in transition, get the ball at the top of the key and lower his shoulders as he crashed through the paint, no one in the lane was laughing. He was rough, but not out of control. He had delicate hands that would tip rebounds all over the glass to himself, while he let his huge shoulders and chest deflect 7-foot men off him like they were made of paper.
He had a steady jumper, could switch off on any frontcourt player in the league, and had tremendous court vision and passing. His around the back pass to Oliver Miller on the break late in Game 5 made my entire day after having watched it. He is a pure hall-of-fame talent with the heart of a champion, despite never attaining one. He would be excellent in today’s league and would show everyone how silly comparing him to Draymond Green really is.
The Bigger O
This series was in serious jeopardy for Paul Westphal and the Suns. Los Angeles had showed an indifference to the teams’ records and defiantly stole the first two games in Phoenix. Kevin Johnson sat out Game 1 with a sore knee and the Suns turned the ball over a lot without him. Also Threatt went unconscious from midrange and finished with 35 points. Game 2 was Vlade Divac arriving as a go-to offensive focal point along with effort play from AC Green and Elden Campbell. The problem was that Phoenix wanted to run in transition against the bigger Lakers but Tom Chambers and Mark West were slowing things down. In Game 3, Westphal went with Olive Miller instead, and the series turned around because of the adjustment.
Miller is a strange animal in the basketball world. Here is an overweight, kinda short center with really long arms and a shot-blockers mentality that can shoot from pretty good range and gets frustrated a lot. His defensive play was monumental in the overtime Game 5 win that moved Phoenix to the next round, and after the game Barkley said that Miller won the series for his team. He and Chuck mixed well with good interior passing to one another and hard charging sprints down the floor in transition. You know, just a couple of fat guys that like to run a lot.
Rookies
Miller wasn’t the only rookie to play well in the series. Campbell looked like a terrific young piece of LA’s future with his play in the series, but only became more frustrating for Laker fans than anything else. Doug Christie played lots of minutes and looked pretty NBA prepared already.
The most interesting of the bunch, though, may have been Suns springy forward Richard Dumas. I remember a lot about 90s basketball, but I didn’t really remember Dumas at all (so much so that I had to read his Wikipedia page which is a doozy and well worth the read). Dumas was a classic young forward of the era: strong, lots of leaping ability, and not much of a shooter. He averaged 15 a game during the season and was the perfect kind of dunker for the style of play the Suns preferred. It’s a shame his career basically derailed after that season, but in 93 he was an excellent fit on the squad.
