Phoenix Suns Flashback: Suns vs Lakers Game 6 2006 NBA Playoffs

Aftermath

The 2005-06 Phoenix Suns would become the 8th team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series, trouncing the Lakers 121-90 in Phoenix in Game 7.

Kobe clearly grew frustrated with his teammates by the 2nd half and decided to prove a point by essentially refusing to shoot in the final quarters.

Barbosa led the Suns with 26 points on 10-for-12 shooting.

The Suns would go on to grind their way to another series win in seven games in the Western Conference semifinals against the Los Angeles Clippers (including a Game 5 for the ages) and win Game 1 in Dallas of the western conference finals before ultimately succumbing to the Mavericks in 6 games.

2005-06 was a highly successful year in spite of all of the adversity and losing their All-NBA center for essentially the entire season. It would have been interesting to see if they could have beaten the Mavericks and the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals to win their first NBA championship with Amar’e healthy. We will never know.

The Suns would go on to make two more deep playoff runs in the Nash era in the 2007 and 2010, including beating these same Lakers in 5 games in the first round in 2007 and losing to a much improved defending NBA champion Lakers team in 6 games in the 2010 Western Conference finals. That year would be the 5th and last of Kobe Bryant’s 5 NBA championships.

Let me know if there are any other classic Suns games you want me to re-watch and review!