I remember just about all of these, but this one brings out the strongest emotions for me. Both :grin: and emotions.
the sad truth about all those 'hands in the face'....they were virtually ineffective. I love some Battier but Kobe is a machine. Shane would've really gotten in Kobe's head had he just pimp smacked him a few times.
I have two favorite moments 1. Vernon Maxwell hitting a 3 pointer to put us up 7 against the knicks in the 4th quarter with about 5 minutes to go. I knew then we had finally won our first championship. In that series 7 points might as well been 17. 2. Game 4, 1996 against Seattle. We lost and were sweep, but the magical comeback after Turbo holding up the "we still believe" sign with the lights dimmed...the last blast of Clutch City to take it to overtime, and we'd have won that game and perhaps the series had Robert Horry not fouled out in OT. We didn't figure out the Sonics with Charles Barkely - we figured them out in that game. Just too late.
You know, since we're all strolling down memory lane here.... ...and since the Rockets haven't yet decided which goal they're trying to meet for this season (win what you can or lose all you can)... ...this looks like as good a jump-on point as any for me. I remember a lot of my friends back then telling me that the Rockets were in trouble facing the Seattle Supersonics in 1996. Seattle had routinely given the Rockets fits with their defensive schemes (or illegal zones, by any other name) and parade of freak athletes. Even after winning two consecutive championships, the Rockets weren't expected to beat the Supersonics. Which was something I found depressingly odd—the argument being that the Rockets only managed to advance out of the conference the previous two years because the Sonics did them the courtesy of bowing out first. The funny thing about that whole series, to me, Sweet Lou 4 2, was that George Karl made absolutely no secret about how he and his team were going to approach it—they were not going to let Hakeem Olajuwon beat them. They'd watched him decimate the competition for the past two playoff runs. They knew from even more personal experience who and what they were facing with Olajuwon. Karl made it clear in every interview or report you could find that he would do his level best to keep the ball out of Olajuwon's hands. That series was not supposed to be a test of the Rockets' character, to me. Such a test was unnecessary. The Rockets had been forged in crucibles over the prior two seasons that the Supersonics had to realize they would not be able to duplicate. They weren't going to trick or fool or bamboozle the Rockets. They were going to have to beat them. And the only way for them to do that would be to test not the Rockets' character and resolve, but their discipline and game plan. I remember the most sunning thing about that series, from an Xs and Os standpoint, Sweet Lou 4 2, was the fact that the Rockets seemed to forget who they were. Or at least, what they had managed to make themselves into during their championship run a season earlier. They were no longer a half court, pound-it-inside-to-Hakeem type of offensive team...the kind of team they had largely been during most of their previous encounters with the Sonics. The Rockets were largely a transition team...not unlike the Phoenix Suns earlier in this decade actually (though obviously not quite as prolific offensively). Of course, struggling through the regular season with key people in and out of the lineup did cause its share of problems, but there really was no need, from what I could see, to try to reinvent the wheel. Or allow Seattle to roll one over them. Seattle's genius or Houston's cluelessness (and it was probably equal parts of both) was in their forwardness in their attack. They were going to play their box-and-one defense, freeze out Hakeem as much as they could, and take their chances with everybody else. Nothing new or original there, from where the Rockets sat, I imagine. Except for two things: (1) Seattle would not have any lapses where they would allow Olajuwon to play one-on-one, as would tend to happen with other teams from time to time, and (2)—and this is the more important point—Houston allowed Seattle to get away with dictating personnel matchups. Generally, whenever you have the best player on the court between two teams, and all other things being relatively equal, that one player will determine the most favorable matchups for your team. Seattle openly admitted as much. Seattle was committed to confining Olajuwon as much as possible. I was amazed that the Rockets allowed them to do that. Ervin Johnson (and no, not THAT Ervin Johnson, I'm sure you know) was the center for the Sonics at the time. 6'11" tall. Good athlete. Decent defender. Consummate team player. Ordinarily in an individual matchup with Olajuwon, though, Johnson wouldn't have lasted as long as a snowball in an incinerator. But of course, we know that Shawn Kemp was the primary defender against Olajuwon (that is to say, he kept his body between Hakeem and the basket). Johnson was going to be the "box" in the box-and-one zone for the Sonics. A big enough player to give Olajuwon problems seeing passing angles, and a mobile enough player to cover holes caused by the aggressive zone defense. It was a sound tactic. I'm not surprised it worked as well as it did, Sweet Lou 4 2. I'm just surprised that it worked as LONG as it did. At best, the whole defensive scheme was a gimmick, designed to buy the Sonics time to defend the Rockets and slow them down enough to keep their big people from getting into foul trouble. What the Rockets should have known (especially with Seattle going out of their way, again, to help them) was that they had to force the Sonics to match THEIR players around Olajuwon, and not the other way around. I don't know why the Rockets insisted on returning to a more conventional power forward platoon against the Sonics—if anything, the past season's run should have given them the litmus they needed for defeating the Sonics. Hakeem was the key. The Rockets knew it. Seattle knew it. Heck, Seattle even conceded it. The Rockets failed to give Hakeem room by starting Robert Horry and Mario Elie alongside Hakeem. Seattle's team size at those spots were problematic anyway, what with Detlef Schrempf and Derrick McKey both at 6'10" and 6'9", respectively, at the small forward, in platoon with Kemp, Johnson and Sam Perkins all at least 6'10" at the four and five. Eventually, you have to play your best players in order to give yourself a chance to win. Especially against playoff competition. Player rotations tend to shrink in May and June for this very reason. The Sonics got away with playing a player who had not viable use on the floor other than as a specialist. Ervin Johnson played too many significant minutes as a defensive roaming big man for the Sonics, and did very little of anything else. If anything, if you promoted Horry and Elie back to their starting roles (and assuming they both responded—which was no reason to think they wouldn't), you would have at least gotten Seattle to thick twice about zoning the Rockets up every possession—sometimes, those periods of indecision can make a great deal of difference. The game is played from possession to possession. That series was a test of wills more than anything else, Sweet Lou 4 2. Nothing I can say in hindsight can change the fact that Seattle was more than well-equipped, personnel and game-plan-wise, to employ their plan and execute it. Having so many tall, athletic and skilled players is tough to contend with, even playing your best. The Rockets most certainly weren't playing their best (or, what we had grown accustomed to seeing from them). Maybe playing that OTHER Ervin Johnson in the first round did bother them.... ....you know, like deja vu?......
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/icuT1PJ43nw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The game that makes me think, THIS IS IT! A second ball handler, option 1c, competetive spirit and all....... And anyone got that pic that Novak scores against Kings during the 22?
Exactly. I love Shane too, but we lost the freakin' series. Kind of hard to consider that a part of "better days". Yes, I know we took them to 7 games but the lakers were sleep-walking through games 4 and 6. As evidenced by what they did to us when they finally woke up in game 7. Call me an old fart, but I just can't consider anything that happened post-Hakeem "better days."
I only post in the GARM when there are threads like these... and when I have some nautical nonsense. Thank you, sirs... everyone. I love DR34M.
Rockets Beat Suns to Clinch No. 4 Seed Posted April 16, 2007 11:20PM HOUSTON, April 16 (AP) -- Tracy McGrady had 39 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists as the Houston Rockets clinched the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference with a 120-117 win over the Phoenix Suns on Monday night. Yao Ming added 34 points and nine rebounds for the Rockets, who won their fifth straight game and snapped a six-game losing streak to Phoenix. The Rockets secured their best record since 1997 and will open their first-round playoff series against Utah at home next weekend. http://www.nba.com/suns/news/recap_070416.html
I miss the old introductions. Love our theme song back then. And I forgot all about the "it's a small world" song for Orlando! <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YzSHbf7U2ys" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
