Charles Barkley blew a 3-1 lead in 1995

[TheCorporation]

In 1995, Barkley's Suns were up 3-1 versus the Rockets before losing 3 straight and the series. Let's take a deeper look at those 3 losses in game 5, 6, and 7 of the 1995 WCSF.

Game 5
HOU 103
PHO 97

Barkley puts up 17-20-2-0-1 on 8 for 22 (.364%) w/ 6 turnovers

Game 6
HOU 116
PHO 103

Barkley puts up 34-14-3-3-1 on 12 for 22 (.545%) w/ 1 turnover

Game 7
HOU 115
PHO 114

Barkley puts up 18-23-5-1-0 on 7 for 16 (.438%) w/ 7 turnovers

Avg for the 3 games?

23-19-3-1.3-0.6 on 27 for 60 (.450%) w/ 4.67 turnovers.

[SouBeachTalents]

The Suns had homecourt too, which always makes losing a 3-1 lead look a lot worse

They were up 2-0 on the Rockets in '94 before losing that series too

[Gotterdammerung]

Barkely got hurt in that series. Through sheer willpower, he put up crazy numbers, but he no longer had the same dominance as he did in his MVP season.

Bad back, bad knees, took shots of painkiller just to stay in the game.

On one play in the fourth quarter, Barkely was under the basket, and went up to dunk gorilla style, but Hakeem blocked it cleanly. Hakeem also blocked KJ on the next play, but that fired up KJ to try again with a ferocious dunk that should've ended the series. He dropped 46 points to no avail.

The Rockets were just too resilient.

[Stanley Kobrick]

not quite as bad as a 73 win team blowing a 3-1 lead, but i must digress it's still embarassing

[sdot_thadon]

Lots of people say Hakeem won with "no help", but people from Houston chuckle when they hear it. I love Dream and he won with one of the weakest casts by name recognition ever, but to say no help is a disservice to that squad over those 2 seasons. Maybe there's another example but i can't recall off the top of my head a team that had so many clutch role players. We had like 5 or 6 non allstar guys hit game winners for us over those 2 seasons. Horry and Cassell were clutch as kids, Maxwell was as well. Kenny Smith. Mario Elie. And later Clyde.

[ArbitraryWater]

Lots of people say Hakeem won with "no help", but people from Houston chuckle when they hear it. I love Dream and he won with one of the weakest casts by name recognition ever, but to say no help is a disservice to that squad over those 2 seasons. Maybe there's another example but i can't recall off the top of my head a team that had so many clutch role players. We had like 5 or 6 non allstar guys hit game winners for us over those 2 seasons. Horry and Cassell were clutch as kids, Maxwell was as well. Kenny Smith. Mario Elie. And later Clyde.


1995 was obviously standard help with Clyde there

[Phoenix]

Lots of people say Hakeem won with "no help", but people from Houston chuckle when they hear it. I love Dream and he won with one of the weakest casts by name recognition ever, but to say no help is a disservice to that squad over those 2 seasons. Maybe there's another example but i can't recall off the top of my head a team that had so many clutch role players. We had like 5 or 6 non allstar guys hit game winners for us over those 2 seasons. Horry and Cassell were clutch as kids, Maxwell was as well. Kenny Smith. Mario Elie. And later Clyde.

Those role players were the main difference in the finals vs Orlando. Hakeem got the better of Shaq overall but it wasn't the main deciding facto; Diesel played him much closer than Ewing and Robinson did.