They still have that complex, which perhaps comes from too many fried armadillo sandwiches and ducking the gunshots when the rifles fall off the gunracks on the pickup trucks.
To the Houston Rockets, it seems like someone is always shooting at them, even as they are on the verge of winning their second straight NBA title. And perhaps it’s why they’re just a little tougher than anyone else. They host the Orlando Magic in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night with a 3-0 lead.
“They’re going to come up with something,” said Rockets forward Robert Horry. “They’ll say Orlando is an inexperienced team that shouldn’t have been here, or that we got by San Antonio because Rodman messed up their chemistry or even when we beat Phoenix it was because Barkley’s knee was hurt. It’s just one of those things we face.”
Others include the midseason trade of their only All-Star other than Hakeem Olajuwon, Otis Thorpe. And the dismissal of starting shooting guard Vernon Maxwell. And Olajuwon being felled by anemia late in the season and injuries to Thorpe’s replacements, Carl Herrera and Horry.
And now they are poised to join only the Celtics, Lakers, Bulls and Pistons in NBA history as back-to-back champions.
“If you have a party and invite all the champions, you’re going to have a lot of people,” said Kenny Smith. “But if you invite only the ones who won back-to-back, then it gets a lot thinner.”
Jumping the gun? It doesn’t seem like it. The Magic faces a staggering task.
Not only has no NBA team ever won a Finals–or any playoff series–after trailing three games to none, but no NBA team in the modern era (since 1954) has ever trailed three games to none and won even the fourth game. It last happened in 1951, when the New York Knicks won three straight to force a seventh game before bowing to the Rochester Royals 79-75.
Of course, no one on either roster was born then, except for Tree Rollins, who is believed to be 108.
“I think we have to realize that there are 25 teams who wish they were here now,” said Magic coach Brian Hill.
Meanwhile, the young Magic, chock full of talent, is trying to figure out how it’s losing.
“I don’t think we recovered from that first loss,” said Shaquille O’Neal.
The Magic led that game by as much as 20 points but Nick Anderson missed four free throws in the waning seconds of regulation before Orlando lost in overtime.
“You take it one at a time,” said Olajuwon, “and you get there before you know it.”
Sure, Olajuwon has averaged 32 points, but O’Neal has countered with 29. The bigger problems have been Clyde Drexler, averaging 23.7 points and 9.7 rebounds and taking those long rebounds off Magic misses and running, and the play of Horry.
“It’s been the transition defense and they started beating us on the boards,” observed Dennis Scott.
But, at least outwardly, the Magic remains optimistic.
“We were the first team to go from a sweep in the first round to the Finals,” said Scott. “So maybe we can still perform some magic. The pressure goes back to them if we win Wednesday and then they have to win Friday or go back to Orlando. If that happens, you can throw out all the games they’ve won on the road.”
But winning 10 of their last 12 road games in these playoffs not only has given the Rockets confidence, but, they believe, classifies them among the great teams.
“Beating Utah, Phoenix and San Antonio , we feel we’ve had a tougher road than them,” said Mario Elie.
And the Magic won 57, tops in the Eastern Conference.
“Last year we had a tough situation with New York,” said Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich. “With the personnel they had, that’s the way they had to play. But to be criticized for going into the jungle and having to fight that kind of war. . . So many positives about hard work and defense could have been brought out. But people only want to talk fast breaks and slam dunks, so negatives came out of it. It was an off year, there was no Michael Jordan.
“But nothing anyone says or writes can tarnish what we did last year. But I’m sure someone will think differently.”
Which means Orlando is in trouble. The Rockets still have that chip on their shoulder.
