[video]The Clutch City Game

tinman · Jul 17, 2011

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http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1994_1201947

Rockets 118, Suns 102/REBOUND/Maxwell-led Rockets bounce back on Suns
EDDIE SEFKO Staff
SAT 05/14/1994 HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Section Sports, Page 1, 3 STAR

PHOENIX -- Rockets owner Leslie Alexander and his wife, Nanci, are passionate activists for animal rights. Maybe they used their clout to get the Rockets off the endangered species list.

Fighting for their playoff lives, the Rockets played their best 48 minutes of the Western Conference semifinals to take a rejuvenating 118-102 victory Friday night at America West Arena.

Vernon Maxwell made sure the Rockets stayed alive with relentless drives. Forsaking at times his outside shot, Maxwell drove for an assortment of baskets, scoring 31 points in the second half (34 overall) and leading the Rockets back into the series.

"Sometimes, I have these kind of nights," Maxwell said afterward. "I put up some shots that I thought somebody else ended up tipping in and then I'd hear my name and couldn't believe it. We had to be more aggressive going to the basket. Somebody had to step up."

And that somebody was Maxwell as the Rockets cut Phoenix's lead to 2-1 and will try to knot the best-of-seven series Sunday afternoon.

Game 5 will be Tuesday night at The Summit.

Maxwell was superb, as was Hakeem Olajuwon, who had 26 points and 15 rebounds.

"We are back," coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "It was a character win. We were backed into a corner and sometimes, you have to believe you can win to get a win. Phoenix still has the home-court advantage, but the pressure is on them now. And it's a lot different playing when you're under pressure."

Don't the Rockets know it.

"Everybody was nervous in the locker room before the game," Maxwell said. "You could tell it. It was so quiet."

But Maxwell and Co. weren't quiet in the second half. He had hit seven of 11 shots in a third quarter in which the Rockets overcame a 12-point deficit to lead by two.

They had started cutting the Suns to ribbons defensively. Maxwell, Sam Cassell, Robert Horry and Mario Elie made a living in the second half of driving into the interior and launching up relatively easy short shots or passing off to Olajuwon or Otis Thorpe for an easy bucket.

When Maxwell scored the Rockets' first six points of the fourth quarter, they were up 84-82 and had the Suns on the run.

After Kevin Johnson, who led all scorers with 38 points, missed, Olajuwon scored a layup on a nice feed from Cassell for a four-point edge, although he missed the free throw after being fouled.

As the Suns showed one of their few flaws in this series by missing two of four free throws, the Rockets scored on every possession, getting an Elie drive, an Olajuwon jumper from eight feet and Maxwell's 3-pointer with 7:42 to go to jump ahead 93-84 and stun the crowd.

The lead flip-flopped from seven to nine points for the next five minutes. The Rockets were up 103-94 when Johnson hit two free throws with 3:22 to play.

The Rockets worked the shot clock down and Maxwell delivered a 3-pointer with 3:11 to go, putting the Rockets up 106-96. That shot also gave him 26 points in the second half, eclipsing the previous Rockets record for points in a half in a playoff game.
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http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1994_1203018
Just where is credit due? Look no further, readers
FRAN BLINEBURY Staff

The media.

Thank you.

Choke City. All it took was those two words to appear in headlines on the front of the sports section, and the Rockets went from looking like chumps to champs in the fourth quarter. All it took was for me to type out that pair of words to open the column that appeared exactly one week ago today on these pages for the Rockets to become Russell's Celtics, Magic's Lakers, Isiah's Pistons and Michael's Bulls all rolled into one.

Geez, if I knew it was this easy, I'd have called them month-old hamburger meat back on Nov. 1 and they'd have probably cruised through the entire season undefeated.

Choke City. It's not exactly "Remember the Alamo!" But it's the battle cry that just might produce the first major championship in Houston sports history.

Mario Elie took a black marker and wrote "Choke City" on the backs of his hightops, and it gave him the strength to discard the bandages that had wrapped his broken right hand prior to Game 3 and transformed him into the super sub again. Kenny Smith put his hands up to his neck and made a choke sign to the fans at America West Arena last weekend and since that time has been playing the most inspired ball of his tenure with the Rockets. Hakeem Olajuwon came off the floor on Sunday chanting, "Choke City! Choke City!" and, well, he's been playing like an MVP.

"Sometimes, you need something negative to happen," said head coach Rudy Tomjanovich. "Ever since that Choke City thing, these guys have been busting their tails to prove they're better than that."

Olajuwon even went so far as to say that opening up 0-2 against the Suns was the best thing that could have happened to the Rockets.
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http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1994_1247032

1994 in review/ONE FOR THE AGES/From Choke City to Champ City
JAYNE CUSTRED Staff
SUN 12/25/1994 HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Section Sports 2, Page 21, 2 STAR Edition

IT's likely 1994 will be best remembered as the year Houston went from Choke City to Championship City.

The label of shame was shed in one glorious moment, when the Rockets captured the city's first major sports championship.

There were MVPs to spare in 1994. Hakeem Olajuwon received the NBA's top honor with much fanfare while Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell was given the same title under much quieter circumstances.

An Oilers coach started the year with a punch, but it was the grandfather of boxing that ended it with a knockout.

The Astros gave us a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been, and Houston embraced the return of ice to The Summit.

Along the way we lost years of tradition and part of our heritage with the demise of the Southwest Conference, but we cheered the sounds of thundering hooves pounding the dirt at the country's newest racetrack.

We said goodbye to Warren Moon, Mike Munchak, Buddy Ryan, William Fuller and Sean Jones. Pete Harnisch is gone as well, and Robert Horry left but came back.

It was a good year for most, a satisfying 12 months for many.

Goodbye, Choke City. Not Houston. Not anymore.

THE ROCKETS

Perhaps a sign of things to come for the Rockets occurred Jan. 12, when they defeated the Boston Celtics in Boston Garden -- the Rockets' first win at the Garden since 1981. The Rockets had lost 14 in a row at the Garden, including three in the 1986 NBA Finals.

But then this was no ordinary season for coach Rudy Tomjanovich and his team.

The road to the club's first NBA championship was not a smooth one. In mid-January, Rockets president Tod Leiweke resigned, and by the end of the month players were complaining about playing time.

Horry, the second-year forward who had become a pivotal part of the starting rotation, questioned his role with the Rockets. Less than two weeks later, he was on a plane to Detroit.

On Feb. 4, Horry and forward/center Matt Bullard were sent to the Pistons in a trade for Sean Elliott. But how the Rockets would have fared with Elliott was never known. One day later, after Elliott failed his physical, an emotionally drained Horry and Bullard returned to the Rockets' fold.

"Sure, I'm happy I'm coming home," Horry said. "But I'm sad it's to a team that in a way turned its back on me."

The controversies would continue. In mid-March, guard Vernon Maxwell was arrested for the third time in 20 months, this time for carrying a weapon in his vehicle.

But still the Rockets persevered, clinching the Midwest Division title with a 119-110 victory over Portland, then besting the Trail Blazers in a first-round playoff series.

The Western Conference semifinals, however, would not be so easy.

The Rockets were already one game down to the Phoenix Suns when they took a 20-point lead into the final 10 minutes of Game 2 at The Summit.

Yet when the final buzzer sounded, the Rockets were on the losing end of a 124-117 overtime embarrassment. It was the greatest collapse in NBA playoff history.

"Everybody feels terrible about this," Tomjanovich said. "It's a very hard, depressing thing to go through."

Headlines the next day proclaimed Houston "Choke City," comparing the Rockets' collapse to a frighteningly similar performance by the Oilers in Buffalo in the playoffs.

But the Rockets rallied to win the next three games, then, after losing Game 6, clinched the series by besting the Suns 104-94 at The Summit. Rookie guard Sam Cassell was the unlikely hero, chipping in 22 points and seven assists.

Through it all, Olajuwon played on, always consistent, always dependable, always invincible.

He was voted as the Western Conference's starting center for the All-Star Game, was named Defensive Player of the Year, then finally received the league's Most Valuable Player award.

The night he was given his award, Olajuwon scored 41 points, had 13 rebounds and dished out six assists in leading the Rockets to their second victory over the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference finals.

In the end, it was no contest. The Rockets were going to the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks.

There were many heroes down the stretch. Cassell scored the last seven points, including a key 3-pointer that gave Houston the win in Game 3; Olajuwon made any number of key blocks and game-winning shots.

But when the Rockets fell behind the Knicks 3-2, Tomjanovich believes it was the character of his team that made the biggest difference of all.

"I put nothing past the Rockets," Tomjanovich said. "I have a lot of faith in this team. When we have our backs against the wall, we usually play better."

The Rockets made Houston history in The Summit two games later. The club secured the city's first major championship with a 90-84 victory over the Knicks. The defense that had carried the club all year came through again.

That, and Olajuwon, who finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks and was named MVP for the championship series.

"If you write a book, you can't write it any better," he said. "It has been a great season for us, and I'm so happy to bring a championship to this city, Houston."
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Commodore · Jul 17, 2011

awesome!

Maxwell picks a fight with A.C. Green at 23:00 for some reason.

krouchchocolate · Jul 17, 2011

damn some dirty ass **** at the end of the game by Danny. lol

Shroopy2 · Jul 17, 2011

Alright tinman, you are historically accurate

:grin:

GlenRice · Jul 17, 2011

53:50 Someone on the Rockets threw a punch at a fan.

Shroopy2 · Jul 17, 2011

Otis Thorpe had crazy big strong hands. Snagging offensive rebounds out of the hair with one hand like he's grabbing a grapefruit

autostarts at 28:55, no stop
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tinman · Jul 17, 2011

Shroopy2 said: ↑

Otis Thorpe had crazy big strong hands. Snagging offensive rebounds out of the hair with one hand like he's grabbing a grapefruit
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The beginning of the mid range master Sam Cassell
here: (auto started-on cassell)
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conquistador#11 · Jul 17, 2011

can you imagine today's divas,sorry, superstars taking an otis thorpe screen? They would be rolling around on the floor for 15 minutes.

This video is the best thing I've watched in a couple of months. Thanks for posting!

tinman · Jul 17, 2011

conquistador#11 said: ↑

can you imagine today's divas,sorry, superstars taking an otis thorpe screen? They would be rolling around on the floor for 15 minutes.

This video is the best thing I've watched in a couple of months. Thanks for posting!
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OT was the man. Don't forget the toughness of OT plus the craftiness of Robert Horry.
Damn that team was legendary!

check out this Clutch City teamwork! This is not the dump it to Dream only offense that the cliff notes say. This was a true team that did it all.
(autostart Horry)
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Pizza_Da_Hut · Jul 17, 2011

Honestly it's easy to forget how dominant that team was. How they played in the moment and how they didn't back down. God, this depresses me about our current Rockets.. They're good, just not great...

Shroopy2 · Jul 17, 2011

I could do "autostart" on this all night

At 33:50 Bob Neal the announcer says the phrase "Kiss of Death". An early sign in Game 3 of what was to happen later in that series - The Clutch City Kiss of Death.

tinman said: ↑

OT was the man. Don't forget the toughness of OT plus the craftiness of Robert Horry.
Damn that team was legendary!

check out this Clutch City teamwork! This is not the dump it to Dream only offense that the cliff notes say. This was a true team that did it all.
Click to expand...

Honestly not even embellishing, the main thing I noticed in this was how much the team system generated offense. How they were group of professional players who knew their roles and accentuated the things they did well without making players overextend themselves. (Isnt that what Phil Jackson's system is heralded for?) Unique team chemistry the Rockets didnt have again for quite a while.

The FOLLOWING year became more dump-it-to Hakeem offense because they lost 2 of the starters from before. But here you could see the polish of a team that's played together for a while.

kaleidosky · Jul 17, 2011

thanks for giving me something fun to do

kaleidosky · Jul 17, 2011

Shroopy2 said: ↑

I could do "autostart" on this all night

At 33:50 Bob Neal the announcer says the phrase "Kiss of Death". An early sign in Game 3 of what was to happen later in that series - The Clutch City Kiss of Death.
Click to expand...

heard it too. loved it

infinitidoug · Jul 18, 2011

Gotta love Kenny Smith's enthusiasm! It's contagious

tinman · Aug 4, 2011

Angkor Wat said: ↑

LMAO I like how he mentions that Clutch was fathered by and owes his existence to Mad Max.
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This is why people need to understand the story of Clutch City.
When the Rockets were down 0-2, they were labeled "Choke City", that changed after this game.

Mad Max was the one who lit the fire that could not be stopped.

Clutch, Clutchfans was named after what this team did.

Rockets Jones · Aug 4, 2011

This game makes me think how good Maxwell really was. Unfortunately he was never made the #1 option and didn't have it in him to take his game to the 'max'. I strongly believe he had the potential to be second to MJ in the 90s era. His defense was good but could've been great, his first was so quick but he almost never used it and his athleticism was off the charts but he never opted to take full advantage of it. Sad Max

HeWhoIsLunchbox · Aug 4, 2011

Danny Ainge is a piece of ****.

RealistFan · Aug 5, 2011

HEY tinman, thanks for posting this. I never knew the entire series was on youtube.

I was actually recently watching G1 of the 1995 series against the Suns. It had that infamous Drexler ejection courtesy of O'Donnell. Here's the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP9HIpO9vyw&playnext=1&list=PLF2E937CE2CF51536

I love the frontcourt of the 1994 team. Horry-OT-Dream formed a formidable defensive frontline and we contained Barkley really well that series. He was a monster on the boards in the 1995 series, though because we didn't have a PF since OT was traded and Herrerra went down.

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