Anybody remember these?

- Marbury, '97 vs. Houston -- 21/4/8 for the series, had 28 in Game 1 and 13 assists in Game 3 (Dean Garrett had 26 and 15 in that game)

- Anthony Peeler, '98 vs. Seattle -- averaged 16/8/4 for the series, led the team in scoring, shot 48% from 3, had 16 rebounds in Game 2, and scored twice as many points in Game 5 (28) as Marbury and KG combined (14)

- Terrell Brandon, '99 vs. SA -- 19/8/7 for the series, went for 27 in Game 4

- TB, '00 vs. Portland -- 20/6/8 for the series, had 28 and 12 assists in Game 3

- Chauncey Billups, '02 vs. Dallas -- 22/5/6 for the series, had 25 in Games 1 and 2

- Troy Hudson, '03 vs. LAL - 24 ppg, went for 37 in Game 2, 27 in Game 3, and 28 in Game 4

- Spree, '04 playoffs - 20/4/4, guarded Mike Bibby in the Sac series and Kobe in the Lakers series, had 31 in Game 2 vs. Denver, 34 in Game 5 vs. Sac, and several other 25-30 point games


The one that surprised me the most when it was happening was TB. He always had better numbers in the playoffs, being more aggressive to the basket and taking more 3s. Also, that 3-game stretch T-Hud had was pretty fun to watch, partially because Derek Fisher was supposed to be a great defender.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh quite the memories right there.

Great post.

The ones that really come to mind for me...

Sam Cassell in Game 2 of the Sacto series in '04 - he saved our season that night.

Peeler had a memorable stretch vs. Seattle.

Huddy lit up the Lakers during Game 2 in 2003 as well.

Seeing as they've only won 2 series, both in the same year, the one that is most memorable for me is T-Hud's 2003 blowup, averaging 23.5 points per game in the series and having outbursts of 37, 27, and 28, like pagingstanleyroberts mentioned. I remember loving him that year, and thinking he was a great floor general who not only could make open shots but could also create for himself, get in the lane and get to the free-throw line (and shoot 90% once he got there.) While in retrospect the contract he was given was an awful awful disaster, at the time I had thought we'd found a perfect guard to pair up with Sam I Am for the present and near future.

My how things change . Still, helluva little run there for the Predator-haired wonder.

Good post!

Sam Cassell's run in the '04 playoffs was prolly the most pivotal. He was huge in the Denver & Sacto series, and his absence in LA was even bigger (one word: Derrick Martin).

T-Hud's run in '03 was also fun to watch in person (the only playoff games I've ever been to)

Good follow-ups. Cassell was definitely better in the regular season and had a good playoff run in '04 too, especially with the two 40-point games. However, he didn't have a good defensive series against Sacto, and Sprewell covered for him. Bibby put up 33 in Game 1, so they had to switch Cassell to Doug Christie. Cassell fouled out of Games 3 and 6 and had 5 fouls in Games 2,4, and 5, even though Christie had two horrible shooting nights in Games 4 and 5.

With Spree on him, Bibby didn't score more than 19 points in a game the rest of the series, and he had some bad shooting games (4/17, 4/12, 5/15, 4/13) during that span. I also remember that Spree had to guard Kobe in the Lakers series because Trenton Hassell wasn't getting any calls and they needed Wally's offense with Cassell out.

I remember watching Spree during those last two series and thinking how valuable and productive he was. It's weird that "feed my family" overshadowed that.

Yeah, Sammy C and Spree could've gone down as Minnesota legends. It's amazing how quickly things turned.

Sprewell was a complete idiot for turning down 3 years for 21 million. He never even got another minimum contract after that. Then he had his yacht repo'ed this past year. Unbelievable...

I don't really blame Sammy that much. I think his fall off in play was due more to his nagging injury from the season before than an attitude thing. He even said that he wasn't going to worry about his deal until Spree had his inked. The whole thing was a huge mess. I thought for sure we'd take the tile as the Big 3 were returning and Wally and Huddy were healthy. We played most of 03-04 without both those guys.