Sam Smith (sports writer) on Rockets v Jordan

Sure... but the Rockets actually won that game.

Talking more about blowing big leads in both series at home. Yes, Hakeem was a mis-match for all other teams out there. He would have been hellish for the Bulls.

 

It is necessary to look to the all Star game matchups between olajuwon and Jordan.

It becomes obvious that Phil Jackson is key.

 

Yeah or get Barkley with just Horry, and keeping Sam.

 

Barkley was at his best when Dream was on bench. The paint was awful crowded when both played together.

Rodman did not need to live in paint on offense.

Not coincidence that David Robinson had his best seasons (including MVP) with Rodman by his side.

 

This

 

We blew them out of the building at home in 91 and that was the game Hakeem got his eye socket fractured.

 

Rodman had to live in the paint on offense, imo.

I mean, we were in the WCF with Matt F'ing Maloney.

I don't think you get by prime Shawn Kemp and those amazing Sonics teams as easily without Charles Barkley.

 

Don't click his articles.

 

I think you forget how effective Rodman was on Kemp during 96 Finals.

 

Rockets ended up putting Hakeem on Kemp in the 97 series. The reason why Barkley was such a mis-match for them was that Kemp just had a propensity to foul as his "defense", even though Barkley was slower, shorter, and probably could not generate a high percentage shot in a one-on-one situation consistently.

Barkley lived at the FT line during their 93 series (the year he won MVP)... especially in game 7.

 

I could not disagree more.

 

Barkley objectively **** on both Rodman and Kemp, so I'm not forgetting that either.

 

Pretty easy to bring up the 1997 playoff games online. Barkley was still likely suffering from the abdominal injury suffered at the hands of Bradley earlier in the year. Offensively, he wasn't really dominating minus a stellar OT game 4.

 

Illegal D was the answer the Sonics had. Kemp was quick to cause issues on the entry pass and double. Kemp would have been a HOF if he any self control.

 

Prime Kemp and those Sonics team are pretty damn underrated.

Bulls had it way easier getting out of the East.

 

I remember that. Worthy ended up showing up at halftime or so during the game after having dealt with law enforcement all day.

 

hou should have brought kenny smith for the 96-97 season, maloney was horrific vs the jazz in the west finals avg 6 pts on 27 fg% vs stockton 20 pts and 540 fg%. not saying kenny would have shut down stock but at least he would have hit a few shots. also barkley sustained a major injury to his hip in the regular season when shawn bradley drove in with a flying knee



https://www.basketball-reference.co...estern-conference-finals-rockets-vs-jazz.html

 

The summit crowd gave him a standing ovation
99ers

 

it's certainly possible. and really, during the 5-1 stretch, contrary to popular thought, hakeem didn't really dominate offensively so it's possible the bulls already had a decent system for him (seattle's constant double/triple-teaming as soon as hakeem touched it was a whole different level of focusing on stopping one guy to almost anything we've ever seen). hakeem only averaged 20 ppg in the 6 games.

now, granted, the first 2 years were the nadir of hakeem's offensive career. in the 2 games in '93 with rudy's system he was up to 23 ppg with ridiculous 23-15-5-4-5 average stat lines and from '93-'97 hakeem averaged 27 ppg against chicago so in the theoretical finals matchups we would have been seeing 27 ppg hakeem and not 20 ppg hakeem. maybe the bulls would've copied the sonics but for some reason they didn't in the regular season even though they would seem to have similar perimeter personnel. maybe the '96 sonics are just underrated. they held prime hakeem in check for a whole playoff series (though i guess you can hold anyone in check if you just double them as soon as they touch the ball) and then made jordan have easily his worst-shooting finals and almost his worst shooting series ever.

back to the bulls, it's amazing how badly we beat the bulls considering how much better they were than us.

in 5 of the 6 games we held the bulls below their regular offensive efficiency (they were #1/#1/#2 those 3 years), including 83, 90, and 92 point games. on average they were about 9 points per 100 worse.

in 5 of the 6 games we were above our own average offensive efficiency.