Thought this was a nice article: Difference in Rockets' 15-0 start? Hakeem 11/30/2002 by EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News History can't be planned. It just happens. But if you witness historic events often enough, you realize there actually might be a formula that can help fate along a little bit. If there is such a blueprint, the Mavericks followed it perfectly during their 14-game winning streak that ended Thursday at Indiana. Their run looked very similar to the 15-0 start the Houston Rockets had in 1993-94. In fact, the resemblance was uncanny. Consider that both teams were coming off second-round playoff losses the previous season. And that both had a mostly young nucleus of players, although Hakeem Olajuwon had just reached his 30th birthday earlier in '93. But forget personnel. The Mavericks have featured the Big Three and a big bench so far. The Rockets were all Hakeem, all the time. Beyond the players, the look and feel of the streaks were almost identical, right down to the beat reporter who chronicled both streaks as they took on lives of their own. And by the way, the line forms to the left. NBA owners and general managers can make all the coaching hires they want, but if they want to ensure a long winning streak to start the season – and maybe lay the groundwork for a championship – clearly it's crucial to have the right person writing about your team. Perhaps the most surprising parallel, though, is that players from different NBA generations were saying basically the same things during their respective runs to greatness. And yes, nine years in the NBA is the equivalent of a generation gap. Listen to what the Rockets said after they knew their streak was becoming the talk of the NBA. "People doubted us in Houston, and people doubted us in New York," said Vernon Maxwell after the Rockets won at Madison Square Garden for their 15th in a row. "That's all right. Let them keep doubting us." Sound familiar? It should. It's almost the same thing several Mavericks were saying after several players around the league and Charles Barkley from TNT were skeptical about the Mavericks' fast start. And how about this from Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich: "We never quit. And we do it with sweat, with defense and with teamwork." Ring a bell? The defensive mantra has been omnipresent this season for the Mavericks. And they have stuck together like glue in the chemistry department. The big difference in the two streaks was Olajuwon. He was beginning a couple of seasons in which he would dominate the NBA during Michael Jordan's first retirement. The 15th game in New York gave Olajuwon a grand stage on which to showcase himself and his team. They called it the Big Battle in the Big Apple. The Rockets brought their 14-0 record to New York and media members jumped on the game as a precursor to the NBA Finals, which it ended up being. The Rockets went into the Knicks' home and Olajuwon outscored Patrick Ewing, 37-12, and outrebounded him, 13-8. "Might as well close the MVP voting right now," said Scott Brooks, who was a backup guard for the Rockets in '93. "Why tease the other players in the league by letting them think they even have a chance?" Fast forward to 2002, and the Mavericks have a three-headed monster leading them rather than one superstar surrounded by Otis Thorpe, Kenny Smith, Maxwell and rookies Sam Cassell and Robert Horry. Dirk Nowitzki may have some supporters for an MVP trophy at some point in his career. Maybe even by the end of this season. But the Mavericks have three stars. The '93 Rockets had only one. In that respect, the Mavericks' chemistry has more challenges to it than the Rockets' did. Three stars must harness their egos. But the positive side of that equation is obvious. With three go-to players instead of one, there is almost always one or two among the trio of Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash who is capable of taking over a game. It seems obvious that these Mavericks have the talent edge over those Rockets. The question is whether they can have another trait in common with the Houston team – a championship. "We had the heart of a champion," Tomjanovich said earlier this season. "We never wanted that streak to end at the start of the season. But when it did, those guys thought losing was so unbearable that they didn't want to experience it again." The Mavericks can only hope they have that in common with the Rockets, too.
OT and pre-self-destruct MadMax, with a young Horry, Cassell and Kenny were about as good a group of role-players you could have. All of them had won games single-handedly at some point (well, Horry was to do that later but his D was already an impact)
i thought it was horry's second year in the nba that we got that record & the championship??? and we were better than the mavs are now
