Samuel Dalembert had 14 points and 12 rebounds, Luis Scola also
scored 14 and the Houston Rockets beat the Detroit Pistons 97-80 on
Tuesday night for their fourth straight victory.

Kyle Lowry had 13 points, five rebounds and five assists for the
Rockets, who outrebounded the Pistons 42-35 to offset 21 turnovers.
Houston shot 49 percent (40 of 81) from the field and scored 21
points off 17 offensive rebounds.

Tayshaun Prince scored 20 points, Ben Gordon had 18 and Rodney
Stuckey added 16 off the bench for the Pistons, who’ve dropped
eight of nine.

The Pistons missed six of their first seven shots as the Rockets
built an early lead. Detroit coach Lawrence Frank was hoping to
strengthen his team’s interior defense by starting Ben Wallace, but
Dalembert had three dunks in the first 9 minutes.

Chandler Parsons swooped in for another slam, and Lowry cut
inside for a layup as the Rockets used a 13-2 spurt to take a 24-10
lead. Houston helped Detroit with six turnovers in the quarter, and
the Pistons cut the deficit to eight by the start of the
second.

The Rockets got sloppy again just before halftime, and the
Pistons closed the gap to 42-38. Lowry made a 3 in the final 30
seconds of the half, and Houston led 47-40 at the break.

Lowry hit three 3s in the game, and Houston finished 8 for 19
from beyond the arc.

Detroit missed 12 of its first 16 shots in the third quarter,
and the Rockets stretched the margin to 62-49. Houston has held
double-digit leads in seven consecutive games, its longest streak
since the 2008-09 season.

The Rockets controlled the boards early in the fourth quarter to
preserve a comfortable lead. Backup point guard Goran Dragic turned
two steals into breakaway layups to extend the gap to 80-66 with
just under 7 minutes left.

Dragic found a cutting Parsons for a two-handed dunk with 2:45
remaining to make it 89-72. Dragic sank a 3-pointer a minute later
to give Houston its biggest lead of the game, 92-74.

The Rockets improved to 5-1 at home, and 4-1 against Eastern
Conference teams this season. The Pistons are 0-9 this season when
they get outrebounded.

NOTES: Houston has won 17 consecutive games when holding its
opponent below 90 points. … Dalembert recorded his second
double-double of the season. … Rockets G Courtney Lee returned
after sitting out eight games with a right calf strain. F Jordan
Hill left with flu-like symptoms and did not return. … Wallace
made his first start of the season at power forward, replacing
Jonas Jerebko. Frank says he’ll try the switch for “a period of
games.” … Pistons G Will Bynum sat out for the second straight
game with a strained right foot. … The Pistons are 0-10 when
trailing after the first quarter, and 0-11 when trailing after
three quarters this season.

HOUSTON
– Samuel Dalembert had 14 points and 12 rebounds, Luis Scola also scored 14 and the Houston Rockets beat the Detroit Pistons 97-80 on Tuesday night for their fourth straight victory.

Kyle Lowry had 13 points, five rebounds and five assists for the Rockets, who outrebounded the Pistons 42-35 to offset 21 turnovers. Houston shot 49 percent (40 of 81) from the field and scored 21 points off 17 offensive rebounds.

Tayshaun Prince scored 20 points, Ben Gordon had 18 and Rodney Stuckey added 16 off the bench for the Pistons, who’ve dropped eight of nine.

The Pistons missed six of their first seven shots as the Rockets built an early lead. Detroit coach Lawrence Frank was hoping to strengthen his team’s interior defense by starting Ben Wallace, but Dalembert had three dunks in the first 9 minutes.

Chandler Parsons swooped in for another slam, and Lowry cut inside for a layup as the Rockets used a 13-2 spurt to take a 24-10 lead. Houston helped Detroit with six turnovers in the quarter, and the Pistons cut the deficit to eight by the start of the second.

The Rockets got sloppy again just before halftime, and the Pistons closed the gap to 42-38. Lowry made a 3 in the final 30 seconds of the half, and Houston led 47-40 at the break.

Lowry hit three 3s in the game, and Houston finished 8 for 19 from beyond the arc.

Detroit missed 12 of its first 16 shots in the third quarter, and the Rockets stretched the margin to 62-49. Houston has held double-digit leads in seven consecutive games, its longest streak since the 2008-09 season.

The Rockets controlled the boards early in the fourth quarter to preserve a comfortable lead. Backup point guard Goran Dragic turned two steals into breakaway layups to extend the gap to 80-66 with just under 7 minutes left.

Dragic found a cutting Parsons for a two-handed dunk with 2:45 remaining to make it 89-72. Dragic sank a 3-pointer a minute later to give Houston its biggest lead of the game, 92-74.

The Rockets improved to 5-1 at home, and 4-1 against Eastern Conference teams this season. The Pistons are 0-9 this season when they get outrebounded.

NOTES: Houston has won 17 consecutive games when holding its opponent below 90 points. … Dalembert recorded his second double-double of the season. … Rockets G Courtney Lee returned after sitting out eight games with a right calf strain. F Jordan Hill left with flu-like symptoms and did not return. … Wallace made his first start of the season at power forward, replacing Jonas Jerebko. Frank says he’ll try the switch for “a period of games.” … Pistons G Will Bynum sat out for the second straight game with a strained right foot. … The Pistons are 0-10 when trailing after the first quarter, and 0-11 when trailing after three quarters this season.

By Brian McDonald

– Staff Writer

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Aug 11, 2011 – Sunday May 25th, 1997

You can make the argument that the 1996-1997 team was the best Rockets team not to win the championship, and they didn’t even make the NBA Finals after losing in the Western Conference Finals in 6 games to the Utah Jazz. Though it must be said that it should have gone 7 games if not for a terrible non-call on Malone’s mugging of Drexler that allowed Stockton to hit the game winner in Game 6. Two games before that, Eddie Johnson hit the 3rd best shot in Rockets history; behind Ralph Sampson and Mario Elie of course. That years team of course didn’t look the same as the Championship teams from 94 & 95 because on August 19th, 1996 the Rockets traded Chucky Brown, Mark Bryant, Sam Cassell, and Robert Horry to the Phoenix Suns for Charles Barkley and a 2nd round pick. A month later Kenny Smith signed with the Detroit Pistons and the only starter left from the 1994 Championship team was Hakeem Olajuwon.

Despite Barkley and Drexler missing a combined 49 games, the new look Rockets won 57 games, finished as the 3rd seed in the West, were 5th in the league in points per game, 6th in total rebounds, and 2nd in three-pointers made. They obviously had top end talent with 3 future Hall of Famers, but their depth deserves some credit too; they had 7 players average at least 9 points per game.

To reach another meeting with the Jazz, the Rockets swept the Timberwolves in the 1st round and put away their arch nemisis at the time, the Seattle Supersonics, in 7 tough games. The stage was now set for another classic Rockets vs. Jazz series. The Rockets won their last two playoff series vs the Jazz, 4-1 in the 1994 Western Conference Finals and 3-2 in the 1st round of the 1995 Playoffs. That years Jazz team though had learned it’s lesson and took the first two games of the Western Finals by an average of 13.5 points per game. The Rockets rebounded in Game 3 and blew out the Jazz 118-100 to cut the series to 2-1. The win set up a crucial Game 4, if they lost, they’d almost certainly be done in 5 when the series headed back to Utah.

The Jazz led 53-48 at half, but the Rockets battled back with a 27-23 3rd quarter to cut the lead to 1 point going into the 4th quarter. Olajuwon had another signature game with 27 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks, and 3 steals. Barkley also had a big game for the Rockets with 20 points and 16 rebounds. His counterpart Karl Malone did not play as well, finishing with 22 points but shot only 10-28 (35%). John Stockton led the way for the Jazz with 22 points on 9-12 shooting with 8 assists and 4 rebounds.

The first 3 games of this series weren’t very competitive, but Game 4 went down to the very last second. With the game tied at 92-92, the Rockets had the ball at midcourt with 6.7 seconds left. As the NBC announcers point out, they were going to take the last shot, so it was win or overtime. On the court for the Rockets were Olajuwon, Barkley, Drexler, Johnson, and Maloney; the reported plan was to go to Hakeem early, if he was covered, then look for Barkley or Eddie Johnson. On the play, Johnson inbounded the ball to Maloney, Maloney passed it to Drexler who got trapped, Drexler back to Maloney, Maloney passes over to Johnson who puts up the shot over Hornacek with .3 seconds left…nailed it!

In Game 3 Johnson was the hero with 31 points on 12-17 shooting, including 5-8 from behind the arc. Game 4 was different, Johnson was 1-4 from the field before he nailed the game winner. When asked what it felt like to be on the court and be part of a win like that, Charles Barkley responded, “It was surreal. I don’t know what it means, but I heard somebody say it the other day and it sounded pretty damn smart, so that’s what it was. Yeah, it was surreal.”

Unfortunately, the Jazz returned the favor in Game 6 with John Stockton’s game winner to end the series and send Utah to their first NBA Finals. The Game 6 loss didn’t just end that season however, it ended the Rockets run as one of the Western Conference elites. Many new players like Scottie Pippen and Steve Francis would join the team, but the Rockets didn’t win another playoff series until the 2008-2009 season; an 11 season draught.

Johnson will obviously never have his number retired at Toyota Center, but that shot was incredible and one of the best moments in team history.

Read More: Sam Cassell (A – WAS), Robert Horry (F – SAN), Steve Francis (G – MEM), Mario Elie (A – SAC), Mark Bryant (A – OKC), Scottie Pippen (F – CHI), Detroit Pistons, Phoenix Suns, Minnesota Timberwolves, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz

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