Rockets vs Sonics Game 7 1997

Thank you, you da man

 

Why do I think Charles Barkley's number should be retired here in Houston?

Because he was the reason the Rockets finally got over on the Seattle Sonics in a playoff series. Everyone talks about hating the Jazz, the Sonics were the team I despised. Man I hated this team with a passion. They cheated and played illegal d all the time and got away with it. Kemp and Payton (especially in their early years up to 1993-94), were cocky, I hated that.

It felt good as a fan to finally see Rudy T, Hakeem, and even CD, (guys that only felt the stinging of losing to the sonics all these years) finally beat those f-in Sonics.

If the Rockets ever play the Sonics in the playoffs again, my hatred for that team, their fans, and their city will return.

 

Detlef Schrempf was an evil b*stard. I hated him more than anyone else on that team. Wasn't too fond of Hawkins either.

 

Amen! Thanks, Bob*.

 

ahh man I was thnking the same thing. I hated his demeanor on the court. That smirk he had when he was chewing his gum really irrated me. I also hated the fact that he was able to abuse Horry anytime he wanted in 1996.

And Finn, I was too young to see the Rockets live back in the late 80, but I do have tapes of some of these games, so I 've seen Ellis. They guy came off picks and hit nothing but net everytime, like he was a robot.

IMHO, the biggest Sonic that killed the Rockets was Nate McMillan though. The Rockets were lucky that he did not play in the 1997 series due to his bad back, or the Sonics could have won that. He was that effective. What he did to the Rockets in 1996 was just abusive, with all those big threes and the constant defensive pressure on Cassell and Kenny.

I may get unfairly blasted for this, but I dont think the championship Rockets teams would have beaten the Sonics in the playoffs. Thank you Denver and the Lakers.

 

It didn't matter who shot the ball for Sea in those mid-90's years. Against us, those three-pointers were going in.

Brickowski, Schrempf, Perkins, McMillan, Payton, Hawkins, they couldn't miss against us. These guys made the Three-Point Shootout contestants in the All-Star game look lame by comparison. Too bad McMillan wasn't healthy for the finals vs. Chicago, that would have made for a more interesting series.

I still can't get over that game during the sweep year in Seattle. We barely lost it despite Seattle sinking more than 20 3-pointers IIRC. I remember thinking if we had just let them drive uncontested for a layup on those possessions we gave up a three, we blow them out! They made such a high percentage that even if we allowed them layups on every single possession they tried a three, I bet we still would have won.

 

Could not have been more true than the 1993 playoff series- Remember when Eddie Johnson hit that 70 foot heave at the end of the 3rd in game 2, which seemed to just ignite the rest of the Sonic shooters as they came back in the 4th and ripped the Rox. What they did to the Rox back then was unbelievable. The OT loss in game 7 that year had to of been my most painful Rocket memory, surpassing that stupid midcourt inbound lob to Derrick McKey with 0.2 seconds to get eliminated from the playoffs in 1987 and watch those arrogant bastards celebrate on our home court.

Argh!!! Painful memories. Man I hate the Sonics.

 

During this game, I was at the Big Horn Bar in Boise, ID. I was so excited for a Rockets win that I went ape ****. After the game was over, everyone in the place threw ice and what not at me.

But I didn't care, because I wasn't hit. If I was,

believe you me I would have opended a can of kick ass on those backward ass mo foes...

Go Rockets!!

 

Agreed.


Where's Sir Jackie Chiles? (Old timer's get it.)

 

Any long-standing Rockets fan knows that the only arch-enemy the Rockets had up until the late '90s was the Sonics. The Denver win in 1994 is one of my all-time favorite Rockets (yes, Rockets) memories. Hated em all.

Now, would I have taken any of them on my team? Hell, yeah.

 

I think the MAIN reason the Sonics had sooo much success against the Rockets was..... the way they were able to handle Hakeem.

Sure they had great 3 point shooting, and great ball-hawks in Payton and McMillen, but it will always be their (illegal) defense of Hakeem that won them the series in 93 and 96.

Hakeem would get so visibly frustrated by the traps, that he'd eventually try forcing shots over double and triple teams. It just seemed that everytime he tried to kick it out, they knew where he was trying to go... dude was FRUSTRATED.

(yet, he still somehow managed to average more than 25 ppg and 13 rebounds... imagine if Yao had those numbers now, we'd be soooooo giddy.... but for Hakeem, those were FRUSTRATED numbers.... shows how great he really was).

The NUMBER 1 reason that their defenses didn't work in 97 was Barkley. He was the offensive threat Otis Thorpe wasn't, and thus gave the Sonics a new look by allowing him to post up, or take on Kemp in one-on-one isolation.

Unfortunatley, I think the reason we eventually lost to the Jazz was that we were unable to close out the Soncis in 5 like we should of in 1997.

Taking it to a game 7 was probably the reason we were so FLAT in games 1 and 2 at Utah, and thus spelled doom for the rest of the series (eddie's shot, not-withstanding).

It is great to re-live the glory days though...

 

I was always under the impression that the Sonics were the reason the Rockets chased Barkley. Barkley was always a Sonic killer. In Phx too.

 

i hate the sonics too, on greatest games i watched game 7 of 93 and 97.... we had a 3-1 lead in 97 we just needed to close it out,i think we were better cuz of we had charles,we just farted around with them. 93 game calls were goin against us, but we had em. 96 they just owned us. i am glad we didnt deal with them in 94 and 95,yet the bulls should be glad we didnt play them in the 91,92,93, or 97 finals (96 and 98 we were beat up)

 

but once barkley came here we couldnt beat the jazz. pre-barkley we owned the jazz, but couldnt beat the sonics. after he came we could beat the sonics, but malone was able to abuse barkley every time.

balance of power is a delicate thing.

 

yep, they shot 20-27 on 3's in that game. so 27 layups would've just given up 54 instead of 60. it was incredible. mcmillan was 5-5, detlef hit some off balance 3 on an inbounds with the shot clock at like 2 in the 3rd quarter (when i think the sonics shot something like 8-8 on 3's). and the amazing thing is, the 13 3's we hit (we were 13-27) in that game were the record for a playoff game the year before until we broke it with 19 against the jazz. so you had the 3rd best 3 pt performance ever getting absolutely dominated by the best ever and we just barely lost. 33 combined 3 pointers, it was crazy. the kings/mavs tried to match it in double OT last year but only got to 29. i think we also broke the record for most 3's attempted in a 4 game series that year too.

 

I never saw this game. I was graduating at EXACTLY the same time. I have no idea what happened. Was it good?

 

don't forget Dale Ellis...he was on the older Sonic teams, but always had huge games against the Rox. One Thursday evening 7+ years ago, my buddy and I were in the Bennigan's at the Galleria, and Dale walked in for a drink. As he was leaving, my buddy got up and greeted him and exchanged a few words, then said "have a good game tomorrow". I couldn't believe it! I told him "you know that dude's going to score 30 tomorrow night on us now, you b*stard!"

and sure enough, the next night at the Summit, Dale goes off for 30+ points in a Sonics win. I still haven't let my friend live that down...

 

Oh man! Who can forget those games in the late 80s against the Supersonics. Their big 3 (Xavier McDaniel, Tom Chambers, Dale Ellis) always kiled us.