It's an old game from the early 90s. I think 1991. It's on ESPN Classic right now. and if this has been posted, my fault. I think there is six minutes left in the game.
Paper: HOUSTON CHRONICLE Date: SAT 04/06/1991 Section: Sports Page: 1 Edition: 2 STAR Rockets keep pace in Midwest/Maxwell grinds up Nuggets By EDDIE SEFKO Staff DENVER - If this is the Vernon Maxwell salary drive, then the Rockets might as well back up the Brink's truck. Maxwell opened a vault full of points Friday night, scoring 45 as the Rockets survived a scare, clipping the Denver Nuggets 126-120 at McNichols Arena. The win puts the 48-25 Rockets 23 games over .500 for the first time in club history. They play Utah tonight at The Summit in a critical Midwest Division game. Maxwell's scoring was even more impressive considering he had none in the second quarter. But he had them when the Rockets needed them most as his three-pointer with 2:39 to play bumped the Rockets' lead to six points and got them much-needed breathing room. Three-pointers were the norm of the night. The Rockets broke the franchise record by hitting 12-of-19. Maxwell tied the individual club record with eight connections. They needed every one of them. The Rockets had a 10-point lead during the third quarter, but that had all but evaporated when the Nuggets outscored the Rockets 7-2 to open the fourth period. Nursing a 96-95 lead, the Rockets got a huge basket with 10:10 to play when David Wood was left open for a three-pointer and swished it. Maxwell followed that with another trey. The Nuggets scored six points, but Otis Thorpe made two free throws and Maxwell hit another three for a 107-101 Rockets' lead. Hakeem Olajuwon, who had struggled offensively, hit a short jumper and Smith made two free throws and the Rockets had rebuilt their lead to 111-101. But the Nuggets were like a nagging cold. They wouldn't go away. Michael Adams hit two free throws and after a Rockets' turnover, Jim Farmer drove on Olajuwon and scored, cutting the lead to six with over six minutes to play. As was the case all game, the final few minutes were filled with some wicked momentum shifts. The Rockets went up by nine at 119-110, then saw the Nuggets get tough, scoring consecutive baskets to chop the lead to five with 3:30 still to play. Two Buck Johnson turnovers didn't help matters. On the second, he slammed into Kenny Battle for an obvious offensive foul. After a couple of offensive rebounds, Battle tipped in a miss to bring the Nuggets within 119-116. Then came another Maxwell three-pointer, his eighth of the game in 10 tries to that point. Denver scored again and when Thorpe made only one of two free throws, the Nuggets had a chance to get back ithin three, but Greg Anderson missed and Maxwell dished off to Kenny Smith for a 14-foot baseline jumper to put the Rockets up 125-118. From there, it was a matter of just hanging on, which the Rockets did. Many NBA players go through mood swings during the course of a season. But Friday's game went through more personality changes than even the most erratic player. It ran the gamut of surges and streaks. One minute, the Nuggets were popping off for 22 points in a four-minute span while the Rockets were scoring just two baskets. With no advance notice, the tide turned and the Rockets peeled away with a 24-10 spree that regained the lead for them. But there was no pattern, except for the fact that both clubs seemed intent on showing why they have reputations as three-point shooting demons. Denver's Michael Adams pulled up from three-point range eight times in the first half, hitting five of his attempts. Not to be outdone, the Rockets' connection of Maxwell and Smith bombed away relay style. First it was Maxwell hitting 21 points in the first quarter. He then gave the baton to Smith, who scored 12 points in the second quarter. Maxwell's first quarter matched the 21 points Sleepy Floyd had in the third quarter the last time the Rockets were in Denver. In that game, Floyd had 40 points in 24 minutes. On Friday, the Rockets had a more interesting time of it than the 129-99 stamp they put on the Nuggets in February. They were sailing along just fine with a 36-28 lead after the first quarter. But the Nuggets then caught fire. With Adams scoring 13 points, including nine on three-point shots, Denver went ahead 50-40. It took them just 3:47 to run off the 22-4 rally. The rest of the half was Houston's. The Rockets began pouring in points and when Hakeem Olajuwon scored for the first time this season in Denver with two minutes to go in the half, the Rockets pulled into a tie at 58. Smith finished off the half with consecutive three-point shots to put the Rockets up 64-60 going into the third quarter, during which they returned to normalcy. Oh, the three-pointers were still there, but the Rockets played a better brand of defense and pulled away to a 79-69 lead. Still, the Nuggets looked surprisingly strong considering they had played Thursday night in Minnesota. With unheralded Joe Wolf having one of the best scoring nights of his career, the Nuggets crept back within 88-83 with 1:35 to go in the third quarter. Maxwell, who did not score in the second quarter, found the groove again and scored the Rockets final four points of the quarter as they took a precarious 94-88 lead into the final 12 minutes.
The game was from 4/19/90. It came on at 7:00am. I just regained access to the board, otherwise I would have posted it. I search for Rockets games every week so I can record them on my DVR. Next one I see, I will let y'all know.
i'm still trying to find it. this is the game where we lost, but this was Dream's stats: 52 points 18 rebounds 3 blocks 3 steals 4 assists the players: Denver Nuggets Starters Fat Lever Michael Adams Alex English Joe Barry Carroll Jerome Lane Reserves Danny Schayes Bill Hanzlik Blair Rasmussen Walter Davis T.R. Dunn Todd Lichti Tim Kempton Houston Rockets Starters Sleepy Floyd Vernon Maxwell Hakeem Olajuwon Buck Johnson Otis Thorpe Reserves Mitchell Wiggins Larry Smith Tim McCormick Anthony Bowie Mike Woodson
Hakeem's best scoring explosion of his career goes down the drain losing to the then lowly Nuggets. Pretty much sums it up.
its goes to show you that its a team sport and Dream needed heroes for the Rockets to be the team of the century.
Anybody who has the game tinman is talking about, Vernon Maxwell went 8 for 12 from three and had 45 points and I really want to see. The 51 point game is epic, but it was ugly, slow and only some shots in the 4th made it exciting. For the rest it was FTs. This game sounds like the opposite, he almost had a tripple double as well
