I always thought this unit was robbed vs the jazz in the 97 west finals and I felt like they would have beat the bulls in a fairly officiated contest. Now fair calls vs the bulls has never happened but I think you see where I am getting at. Listening to the inside the tnt shows over the years charles barkley has said a few times the rockets were robbed vs the jazz that year because the refs were intimidated by the crowd. I always think back how would that rockets teams have faired in 97 with cassell , horry and chucky brown instead of chuck vs the jazz. 96-97 was a remarkable season despite not winning it all with the signing of kevinwillis who I was always a fan since his hawk days in 87. The signing of eddie johnson who the rockets honor tonight and sedale threatt. I loved this veteran team and I wish the rockets signed kenny smith that year because his experience would have paid off vs stockton in the west finals.
If we had gotten past Utah, we would have had a good chance against the Jordanbulls, because we always played well against them. And had we beaten the Bulls in the finals, that would have been three in a row and thousands of sportswriters and anchors over the next two decades would have had to change their narrative about the Rockets "borrowing" two titles from Chicago. I blame the ref who didn't whistle Karla Malone for that illegal pin-down on the final play.
They weren't robbed vs the Jazz. Was Utah a dirty, flopping team? Sure. But the Rockets were simply outplayed. The Jazz won Games 1 and 2 at the Delta Center convincingly(101-86, 104-92). Maybe the Rockets were fatigued after their 7-game series vs the Sonics(Utah meanwhile finished the Lakers in 5), but it's their own fault they didn't take care of business in Game 5 at the Summit when they had Seattle down 3-1. It was a reversal of roles from 1994 when the Jazz failed to finish off the Nuggets until Game 7 despite having them down 3-0 and came into Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals looking exhausted. Then the series returned to H-Town for Games 3 and 4. I was actually at Game 3 and don't let the 118-100 final score fool you. The Rockets had to scramble to win that one. The Jazz actually led 31-18 at the end of the first quarter(which ended with a Malone 50-foot buzzer beater if I recall correctly). It took some exceptional performances by Johnson, Threatt, and Willis off the bench to get them back into the game. And then Game 4 despite its heroic ending(again thanks to Eddie Johnson) was tied 92-92 with a few seconds left. Had it not been for that miraculous shot, we're looking at overtime and who knows what happens? Game 5 was close(the Jazz won 96-91), but I remember watching that one and the sad truth is that Utah was in control the entire game. The Rockets never really could get over the hump at the Delta Center that year. It's not like it was one of those games where you have a big double-digit lead and blow it. And then the infamous Game 6. The Rockets were up 13 with under 7 minutes to go and 7 with under 2 minutes left and blew both leads. Plus they didn't even assure themselves of overtime when Drexler inexplicably put up a shot too early and allowed Utah one last possession in regulation. I remember listening to a local sports radio show the next morning and they said bluntly that the Rockets "choked". I'm inclined to agree. The Jazz had a defeated look in that 4th quarter and seemed resigned to playing Game 7 on Sunday. Instead the Rockets let them right back into the game.
They blew a big lead in that game 6 capped by drexler shooting too damn early to allow the jazz to get the Stockton shot off.
Was this the series that the clock operator started the clock late when the Jazz had possession? I remember Peterson and Foley screaming at someone to start the clock.
That team was top 10 in defense and offense. But so were the j*zz. Crazy that the big 3 were 33-34 years old and still so effective.
Barkley was a key reason we beat Seattle that year. So you start the what if scenario with Could we beat Seattle with them? The whole reason we traded for Barkley was to beat Seattle.
The talent was amazing but they had so many injuries that I think it cost them badly in terms of their chemistry. I remember thinking they just didn't look smooth in the playoffs and compared to the Rockets the Jazz were all chemistry, just the same old Stockton-Malone routine that they had iterated on for years. The Rockets had some great wins during the regular season that showed what they could have been if everything had fallen in place, but it just didn't turn out that way.
The injuries to Price Krispie and Emanual Davis didn't help matters. Relying on Matt Maloney and Sedale Threatt to deal with John Stockton hurt. But the Rockets sacrificed depth to get Barkley. It worked in finally getting them past Seattle, but the emergence of Utah took them by surprise. Sure, the Jazz made it to Game 7 of the WCF the year prior, but the advancing age of Stockton and Malone had a lot of people thinking that was their last shot at the Finals. Utah had way better depth than the Rockets that year and it showed in that series.
It seemed to me that Stockton in particular really had a hunger to him those last couple of years. I was never particularly impressed by Malone in the playoffs - he put up consistently good stats but he never came across as a guy who would go "MVP mother f-er!!!" and just murder a team - but Stockton knew his time was coming up and seemed like he was doing everything he could to drag the Jazz to the finals. As you say, it didn't hurt that the Rockets only had to throw Maloney and Threatt to put against him.
I've always thought that the Sonics were the 3rd best team of the 90's. It was a huge accomplishment to defeat them like we did in 97. It's my policy not to mention the utah team by name, nor comment on their play during the 97 and 98 playoffs against the Rockets.
