1981–82 Phoenix Suns season

The 1981–82 Phoenix Suns season was the 14th season for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association. The Suns were in the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season, extending a then-franchise record. In the first round, Denver was taken down by the Suns, two games to one. Phoenix would find a tougher opponent, however, in the Western Conference Semifinals, getting swept four games to zero by the eventual league champions, Los Angeles Lakers. The Suns were led by head coach John MacLeod and played all home games in Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Dennis Johnson again earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors and was the lone All-Star Game participant from the Suns. Additionally, he led the Suns in scoring with his 19.5 points average, a personal career-high. Truck Robinson was not far behind with his 19.1 average, and paired that with rebounding average of 9.7 a game. Fellow big man Alvan Adams brought in 7 rebounds and 15 points a contest.

Roster
{| class="toccolours" style="font-size: 85%; width: 100%;" ! colspan="2" style="background-color: #423189; color: #FF8800; text-align: center;" | Phoenix Suns roster ! Players !! Coaches {| class="sortable" style="background:transparent; margin:0px; width:100%;" ! Pos. !! # !! Name !! Height !! Weight !! DOB (Y-M-D) !! From
 * - style="background-color: #FF8800; color: #423189;  text-align: center;"
 * valign="top" |
 * valign="top" |

Game log

 * - align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
 * 1
 * April 20
 * @ Denver
 * L 113–129
 * Kyle Macy (22)
 * Truck Robinson (13)
 * Truck Robinson (6)
 * McNichols Sports Arena 17,298
 * 0–1
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc"
 * 2
 * April 23
 * Denver
 * W 126–110
 * Dennis Johnson (29)
 * Alvan Adams (9)
 * Dennis Johnson (8)
 * Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum 12,798
 * 1–1
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc"
 * 3
 * April 24
 * @ Denver
 * W 124–119
 * Dennis Johnson (26)
 * Truck Robinson (9)
 * Rich Kelley (7)
 * McNichols Sports Arena 17,443
 * 2–1


 * - align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
 * 1
 * April 27
 * @ Los Angeles
 * L 96–115
 * Johnson, Adams (20)
 * Truck Robinson (14)
 * three players tied (4)
 * The Forum 13,623
 * 0–1
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
 * 2
 * April 28
 * @ Los Angeles
 * L 98–117
 * Dennis Johnson (27)
 * Larry Nance (11)
 * Dennis Johnson (6)
 * The Forum 15,558
 * 0–2
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
 * 3
 * April 30
 * Los Angeles
 * L 106–114
 * Alvan Adams (23)
 * Alvan Adams (12)
 * three players tied (5)
 * Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum 14,660
 * 0–3
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc"
 * 4
 * May 2
 * Los Angeles
 * L 107–112
 * Dennis Johnson (31)
 * Macy, Nance (6)
 * Alvan Adams (8)
 * Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum 11,932
 * 0–4

All-Star

 * Dennis Johnson was selected as a reserve for the Western Conference in the All-Star Game. Johnson finished fourth in voting among Western Conference guards with 220,914 votes. It was his fourth consecutive All-Star selection.
 * The other Suns player who received All-Star votes was Alvan Adams (134,441).

Season

 * Kyle Macy led the league in free throw percentage with .899%.
 * Dennis Johnson was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team. Johnson also finished 21st in MVP voting.

Season

 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Alvan Adams || 79 || 75 || 30.3 || .494 || .000 || .781 || 7.4 || 4.5 || 1.4 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 1.0 || 15.1
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Dudley Bradley || 64 || 3 || 14.6 || .445 || .250 || .740 || 1.4 || 1.3 || 1.2 || .2 || 5.1
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Jeff Cook || 76 || 22 || 17.1 || .422 || .000 || .664 || 4.0 || 1.3 || .5 || .3 || 5.1
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Walter Davis || 55 || 12 || 21.5 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | .523 † || .188 || .820 || 1.9 || 2.9 || .8 || .1 || 14.4
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Craig Dykema || 32 || 0 || 3.2 || .459 || .500 ^ || .778 || 0.4 || 0.5 || .1 || .0 || 1.3
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Dennis Johnson || 80 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 77 || 36.7 || .470 || .190 || .806 || 5.1 || 4.6 || 1.3 || .7 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 19.5
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Rich Kelley || 81 || 39 || 23.4 || .467 || .000 || .749 || 6.1 || 3.6 || .8 || .9 || 7.9
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Joel Kramer || 56 || 0 || 9.8 || .414 || . || .786 || 1.9 || 0.9 || .3 || .2 || 2.6
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Kyle Macy || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 82 || 72 || 34.7 || .514 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | .390 ^ || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | .899 || 3.2 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 4.7 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 1.7 || .1 || 14.2
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * John McCullough || 8 || 0 || 2.9 || .692 † || . || .600 || 0.5 || 0.4 || .3 || .0 || 2.6
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Larry Nance || 80 || 0 || 14.8 || .521 || .000 || .641 || 3.2 || 1.0 || .5 || .9 || 6.6
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Truck Robinson || 74 || 72 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 37.1 || .513 || 1.000 ^ || .687 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 9.7 || 2.4 || .6 || .4 || 19.1
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Alvin Scott || 81 || 38 || 21.5 || .497 || .000 || .730 || 3.6 || 1.8 || .7 || .9 || 6.0
 * }

† – Minimum 300 field goals made. ^ – Minimum 25 three-pointers made.

Playoffs

 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Alvan Adams || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || 33.3 || .522 || . || .786 || 7.3 || 3.7 || 2.0 || 1.4 || 16.9
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Dudley Bradley || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || 0 || 3.4 || .250 || . || 1.000 ^ || 0.1 || 0.7 || .1 || .1 || 0.7
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Jeff Cook || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || 0 || 6.4 || .500 || . || . || 1.3 || 1.0 || .3 || .3 || 1.1
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Walter Davis || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || 0 || 24.7 || .448 || .333 || .917 || 3.1 || 4.3 || .7 || .1 || 18.1
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Craig Dykema || 6 || 0 || 2.0 || .167 || . || . || 0.7 || 0.3 || .0 || .0 || 0.3
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Dennis Johnson || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 38.7 || .477 || .000 || .769 || 4.4 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 4.6 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 2.1 || .6 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 22.3
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Rich Kelley || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || 27.3 || .500 || . || .700 || 6.9 || 4.3 || .9 || .4 || 9.7
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Joel Kramer || 4 || 0 || 5.0 || .714 † || . || .667 || 1.3 || 0.3 || .3 || .0 || 3.0
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Kyle Macy || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || 34.7 || .427 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | .364 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | .938 ^ || 3.1 || 4.0 || 1.0 || .1 || 13.6
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Larry Nance || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || 0 || 18.3 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | .610 † || . || .500 || 4.6 || 1.0 || 1.4 || 1.6 || 7.7
 * - align="center" bgcolor=""
 * Truck Robinson || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || 30.4 || .563 || . || .300 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7.6 || 2.7 || .7 || .1 || 13.3
 * - align="center" bgcolor="#f0f0f0"
 * Alvin Scott || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 7 || 0 || 18.1 || .438 || .000 || .500 || 2.3 || 2.0 || 1.1 || style="background:#FF8800;color:#423189;" | 1.9 || 4.6
 * }

† – Minimum 20 field goals made. ^ – Minimum 10 free throws made.