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Sunday, May 25, 1997

Was Rockets' success a fluke or a foretelling?

By CHRIS SHERIDAN / AP Basketball Writer

HOUSTON (AP) - The Houston Rockets didn't play the perfect game, they played a perfect final three quarters. Now they want to accomplish something that hasn't happened in 4-1/2 months - handing the Utah Jazz consecutive losses.

"Let's not even play the game tomorrow. Let's just give them the game," Charles Barkley said sarcastically Saturday when it was pointed out that the Jazz were in similar straits in the second round of the NBA playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers.

In that series, Utah rebounded from a horrible Game 3 and edged the Lakers in Games 4 and 5.

"We're not the Lakers," Barkley said. "We try to use our brains."

If the Rockets want to avoid the same fate that awaited Los Angeles, they'll want to play four, not three, solid quarters of basketball. Going into Sunday's Game 4, the Jazz lead the series 2-1.

Utah had a strong first quarter in Game 3 and led 31-18 after 12 minutes. Things were going so good for the Jazz, in fact, that Karl Malone made his first 3-pointer of the season - a buzzer-beating 40-footer - - to make it look like the Western Conference finals were going to be a runaway.

Then everything changed.

Houston shot 62 percent from the field over the final three quarters and reversed its trends of being outrebounded, outshot and outhustled.

The biggest boost came from Eddie Johnson, who came off the bench to score all of his season-high 31 points over the final three quarters.

"I'm very concerned about our slow start. We can't come out lackadaisical again," Barkley said. "If we get down by 13 tomorrow, they'll put the nails in our coffin."

The Rockets want to avoid the unenviable prospect of returning to Salt Lake City down 3-1, but the Jazz haven't lost consecutive games since Jan. 9 and Jan. 11 against Toronto and Detroit.

"We're a good team when our backs are to the wall, but I wouldn't call last night a backs-to-the-wall scenario," Clyde Drexler said. "If we had lost Game 3, our backs would definitely be to the wall."

The Jazz, meanwhile, also were wondering whether their fortunes would follow the same script as the second round.

"Hopefully this will be like the L.A. series," Jeff Hornacek said. "We've had this bad game and now we've woken up and we know what to do.

"It's somewhat like the L.A. series, but I wouldn't say it was totally the same. The Lakers just killed us from the start in that game. At least last night we played well for a while, but I hope we'll learn from it the same way."

The Rockets stuck to the same formula for success that served them so well during the regular season. They pounded the ball inside to Hakeem Olajuwon, waited for a double-team, then passed the ball out to an open shooter at the 3-point line.

If the Jazz decided to leave Olajuwon in single coverage, he was able to score almost at will against Greg Ostertag and Greg Foster.

The difference this time was that the 3-point shots fell. Johnson had five of Houston's 12 3-pointers as they matched their combined total from the first two games.

In the fourth quarter, which began with Houston leading by eight, there was almost no deviation from that pound-it-to-Hakeem formula. After Utah scored seven straight points to pull within five, Olajuwon posted up five feet from the basket and scored twice in a row over Ostertag.

Johnson made Houston's next two baskets, Olajuwon had a three-point play and Johnson finally ended all doubt with 2:54 left when he made a wide-open 3-pointer for a 107-95 lead.

"Obviously we did a lot of good things in the first quarter, then things got away from us," Malone said. "Then, of course, Eddie got hot.

"The most important thing right now is to put that game behind us. They said they had to win it and they did. Now we've got to go on and get back to our game. The small things are going to win this series." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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