Leading the Suns in scoring was Richard Dumas who finished with a career-high 27 points in only his fifth ever NBA appearance. The win also gave Phoenix it’s 13th consecutive and knocked the Nuggets to their 11 straight loss – including anoth Suns victory just four days earlier.

The aforementioned best bench in the league closed the game out, outscoring the severely over-matched Nuggets 49-37, leading to a 129-88, 41 point win, the largest victory to that point in franchise history. Barkley later commented that “I needed the rest.” Helping to stretch the lead to 27 points with four minutes left in the third quarter, Charles Barkley sat down never to re-enter, finishing his 24th game as a Sun with 21 points, 9 boards, and zero personal fouls. “I realize now I should have asked for it sooner.” “I told the team before the game I was tired of the fourth-quarter heroics and I wanted a blowout,” said Suns Head Coach Paul Westphal who had replaced the retired Cotton Fitzimmons over the summer. Johnson remarked after the game that “the only team that can beat our starting five is our bench right now.” His statement held true as the reserves, which at this moment was highlighted by Johnson, Dumas, Tom Chambers, and Danny Ainge, helped the Suns to not only broaden their first half lead with a strong run to end the second quarter sending the two teams to the locker room with a Phoenix lead of 60-39, but then carry the team for the rest of the way as starters Charles Barkley and Dan Majerle watched much of the second half from the bench. Most of those came off of passes from point guard Kevin Johnson, who for the second game in a row was relegated to a bench position as he recovered from a groin injury that had sidelined him for the prior 30 days. Rookie Richard Dumas, one of the most high-flying and athletic small forwards in league history, helped to extend the Phoenix league to two just 34 seconds into the second period with his first of seven dunks. The Suns broke the game wide-open early, ending the first quarter on a 13-2 run leading 33-17.

So for the Suns to come out of the gates against Denver on this cold winter’s evening, roaring like an unstoppable force with 19,023 screaming fans willing them on, was nothing but expected. Not only did the Suns tie the NBA record for most points in a non-overtime game with a 173-143 contest again Denver in 1990, but Phoenix even dropped 186 on them in a preseason game only a couple of weeks prior. If you recall previous matchups with the Denver Nuggets, the Suns regularly came on top, far out scoring the generally extremely high scoring MIdwest Division rival. Phoenix entered this matchup riding a franchise record 12 game winning streak (as you recall it stretched to 14 games from December 1 through December 31 their only unbeaten month in club history) and a 19-4 record, their fastest start ever. Regularly the second ticket went to me.ĭecemagainst the Denver Nuggets was my first outing. A few minutes before the opening player introductions, he would pack up and use the two tickets that was a part of his pay to go into the game. That season she had set my father up with a gig of playing with a band outside the new America West Arena as fans came pouring in. In the 1992-93 season, I had an Aunt who worked for the franchise and was very well-known and liked by many of the players and executives. I had never watched a Suns game and I knew very little about the team and the sport itself outside of old coupons to games at the old Veterans Memorial Coliseum that I had somehow collected. To this point in my life, I was largely disconnected from the world of sports, although I had a package of baseball cards (which are long gone now) that I had numbered on the back the order of which I liked them best to worst. My ninth birthday had only been several weeks before.

To set this game up, I need to get a little personal. By Adam Maynes 5 years ago It was two days after Christmas 1992, not even two months into the already explosive and exciting Charles Barkley era, when the Phoenix Suns set two of the most impressive franchise records in their 25 year history.

Nuggets suns head to head