Rockets have tough road to third NBA title

By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press Writer

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - The two-time defending NBA champion Houston Rockets are hurting, written off by some, uncertain and without home-court advantage as the playoffs begin this week.
In other words, they're right where they used to being.

"One of the characteristics I'm not really happy about is we're probably the best trench team in modern basketball - being pushed into the corner down in that foxhole," coach Rudy Tomjanovich said as his team headed to Galveston on Monday for three days of practice before Thursday's first-round playoff opener against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Tomjanovich, whose team averted elimination repeatedly a year ago en route to a second straight NBA crown, said a his goal would have been to avoid starting out from behind.

"Let's not get down there," he said. "But right now, because of injuries, we're already in the foxhole, just like last year."

Injuries decimated the team beginning at midseason, leaving Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Mario Elie, Sam Cassell and Robert Horry - the heart of last season's title winner - on the shelf.

"I've conditioned myself to come to the arena or to the practice floor not knowing what to expect," Tomjanovich said. "All these things you just have to be prepared for and you deal with them."

Houston finished the regular season Sunday with a victory over Phoenix to wind up 48-34. That's one game better than a year ago but 10 games off the pace of the 1994 championship team.

Still, Tomjanovich thinks this year's club is better with the addition of Mark Bryant, who has given them toughness up front, and Eldridge Recasner, an additional outside shooting threat.

"If we're healthy, I'd say on paper ... you have to feel you're better," he says. "But talent and potential really means nothing in getting the prize.

"The first year we didn't have an explosive offense. We have more options now than we had on the first championship team. Right now, we have to get back to the team that does what it takes to win."
The players think they have it.

"People have been knocking us," says Sam Mack, himself a mid-season injury replacement from the CBA. "Two weeks ago they were saying we were losers. I think we've shown we can get back to our winning ways and we're taking that into the playoffs."

"It's been two tough years for us in injuries," said Mario Elie, who missed three months and 35 games with a broken arm. "Now we've got no pressure on us going into the playoffs. Nobody expects anything of us. Everybody likes Chicago, Seattle, San Antonio.

"I think we're absolutely better than we were last year at the same time. We have a lot of playoff experience, and when people say playoff experience doesn't mean anything, they're wrong."

The Rockets playoff experience their last two years has started in Galveston, 50 miles southeast of Houston, where they revisit training camp.

"We get away from our normal environment," Tomjanovich says. "That alone gets you to think: this is special."
It also gives them an opportunity to work on defense, which has carried them to the top of the NBA.

"That's what it's all about," says guard Kenny Smith.
Tomjanovich says he figured for some time that the Lakers would be Houston's first-round opponent, so he and team scouts have been collecting Laker game videotapes.

"We've got every possible game, the last 25 games have been broken down," he said. "We know tendencies. We know what their plays are. Getting it stopped is another thing."

The Lakers also have this year what Tomjanovich calls an "extra special ingredient" - Magic Johnson.

"He knows how to win," he says. "He's been there many times before. Now you have a winner like that who will help get them focused. His main goal is to win the game. And we have to have that same mentality."