Amar'e Stoudemire

Avoiding the urge to overthink with only two victories needed to stamp their postseason ticket, the Phoenix Suns — with a trademark All-Star pick-and-roll pairing and an inside-the-arc scoring focus — found that good things came in twos on March 28, 2010. For Amar’e Stoudemire, well-known for having a voracious appetite for contact jams around the rim, that same concept applied to how many players could be dunked on at once. Beginning the play innocently enough with a quick, unselfish feed to a perimeter-bound teammate, Stoudemire proceeds by hustling to set a pindown-type screen, freeing up a different potential scorer. Finding the rim — and a quickly-parting blue sea in the middle of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ paint — calling his name, Stoudemire eventually takes his chance with a flash to the rim, a deep seal, and then a powerful, one-handed contact cram. Admiring his work with a staredown of Ryan Hollins and Kevin Love thereafter, Stoudemire left behind plenty to appreciate during Phoenix’s sixth-consecutive win. Metaphorically heating up at precisely the right time, the six-time All-Star did his part through 30 points (on 11-of-19 shooting), 17 rebounds, three assists, and one rejection.