Re: Texas Two Step: An Alternate NBA History (NBA2K20)
Ch. 13
The Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers didn’t like each other. The injury to Thorpe and the events that came after had left an indelible mark on the psyches of both teams. Portland’s season, prior to that game, had been listless — it was the type of season that happened when a veteran team couldn’t get back off the mat after a long playoff run the year before.
Portland’s loss to the Pistons in the Finals was, perhaps, the most deflating moment of Clyde Drexler’s NBA career. He hadn’t performed all season to just fail at the most critical, crucial of times, but that’s exactly what happened; Detroit treated Drexler like Jordan and found Drexler to be a far easier opponent to deal with.
“I got beat up that series and couldn’t carry like I had all year,” Drexler recalled. “And the blows they dealt me, the way they treated my teammates … it stuck with all of us. We had the hangover of hangovers.”
Portland had gone from champions of the West to just barely sneaking in. If they had lost one game during the last week of the season, they would have watched the rival Sonics take their spot and they would have been left out. It would have been an embarrassing finish to a lackluster season.
But the Thorpe game energized Portland and got them across the finish line — and they weren’t afraid of Houston. They knew the Rockets were angry at them and they used that to their advantage. Game 1, in Houston, was a game that saw Portland win 111-101, and they spent the game targeting the Rockets most important player: Pippen, who would foul out early in the fourth and tank any chance his team had to win with him.
“I played stupid,” Pippen admitted after the game. “I let my feelings control me and that’s why we lost tonight.”
Pippen played well in Game 1 (16-5-10) but it was a bit of an underwhelming performance, especially for someone who nearly won the MVP (he finished third behind Jordan on the ballot that Olajuwon ultimately won).
Game 2 saw Pippen play out of this world: 40-6-5 with 3 steals, a block, and a perfect 8-8 from the line. It was Pippen’s highest scoring playoff game ever and he stayed out of foul trouble. Flanked by Payton (17-4-16) and Grant (15-16-7), the Rockets trio loudly declared that Portland wouldn’t be putting them down 0-2.
Game 3 saw the series shift to Portland, where the Blazers expected the home crowd to give them a boost. Rick Adelman tasked his veteran PG, Terry Porter, with stopping Gary Payton — Adelman suspected that if Payton could be made frustrated, that the rookie point man would help crash the Rockets.
Porter agreed with the idea. “Gary was doing great so far, but he was a rookie playing in his first road playoff game. History said he could be rattled,” Porter recalled. “He liked to talk, which just made it easier.”
The early portion of the game saw neither team get off to blazing offensive starts — fouls were exchanged and both teams were setting a tone for a tough, bruising night. Horace Grant would get whistled for his second foul with 8:31 left in the first and would be taken out for rookie center Terry Moncrief, much to Grant’s displeasure.
“I was pleading with Randy to let me stay in, that I’d keep it clean, but he didn’t budge,” Grant said. “He wanted me to stay available and I was riding the pine.”
What happened next saw the Rockets bench erupt.
Payton’s alley-oop to Pippen tied the game and started the Rockets up. Houston would lead by the time the first quarter ended, 28-22, would carry a 56-51 lead into halftime. Starting the second half, Coach Kern opted to leave Grant on the bench and keep rolling with Moncrief, who was playing solid defense. Minutes later, in a deadball situation, Moncrief would make a rather rude gesture towards a Portland player.
Portland didn’t find it funny and the two teams nearly came to blows again — and at that point Kern pulled Moncrief and put Grant back in, chiding the rookie big man. “It was immature … I can look back on it now and laugh a little, but in that game, I didn’t want to see that and I didn’t need to give Portland more fuel,” said Kern.
Gary Payton, however, thought it was hilarious and chatted about that moment the rest of the game at Porter. Porter would repeatedly foul Payton and find himself on the bench — the Rockets blew out the Blazers from the third quarter onward and Pippen surpassed his playoff high, set the night before, with 42 points.
It was an embarrassing loss for Portland, who were down 2-1, but they go some good news when they heard the Warriors had swept the T’Wolves (Minnesota had beaten Portland 3 out of 4 times that year) and were waiting in the second round. In Game 4 the Blazers came out and played with pride — it was a closeout game and Portland’s entire season was on the line.
They came out and played like it, getting a big third quarter that allowed them to close the lead with the Rockets, who ultimately had to go to overtime with the veteran Blazers. In OT, Pippen fouled out on a controversial shooting foul (to this day Pippen believes the refs were looking for a reason to prolong the series) and Portland escaped, 110-108, forcing a final Game 5.
For the Rockets players and coaches, a Game 5 back at home was just fine with them. They were mad they hadn’t been able to embarrass Portland on their home floor, but they were looking forward to humiliating them in Houston.
“We knew we would have won the previous game if Scottie wasn’t whistled for that phantom foul,” Kern told the local press the day before Game 5. “We had it. We’re going to finish it tonight.”
Kern’s confidence seemed both earned and unearned; on one hand, he’d guided the Rockets to a 58-win season and a first seed. On the other, he had never coached a team in a deciding playoff series contest. But his confidence — whether misplaced or just a front — inspired his players.
“He wasn’t faking it, not one *ucking bit,” said Payton. “He believed we got screwed over the game before and he knew we could put this team away. His pregame speech wasn’t a speech, he just told us to go out and stomp Portland’s *ss. That was it.”
The Rockets went on to do just that — a 35-18 first quarter was punctuated by Pippen eating.
Portland didn’t stand a chance and Drexler had his worst game of the series and his worst playoff game ever: 36 minutes, 9 points on 4-16 shooting, 1-2 from the line and no threes. Pippen, by comparison, feasted and topped his playoff high again — 43-8-2 with 4 steals and 3 blocks on an outrageous 18-30 from the floor.
Pippen’s confidence and swagger radiated off him that entire game, so much so that Portland’s players — most notably Terry Porter — lost their cool. It was a decisive win for Houston and an inglorious end for Portland. “That game,” Drexler said many years later, “was when I knew we had to make changes. We weren’t the same team anymore … we had gotten lapped.”
The Rockets celebrated advancing to the next round in their locker room, but it wasn’t anything over the top. Kern delivered one, final message before he dismissed his players for the night. “Don’t think this is it,” he told the room. “We can go further and we will, if we play together and if we play with focus. I want that *ucking championship trophy, don’t you?”
The locker room loudly cheered, “*uck yeah!”
Ch. 13
The Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers didn’t like each other. The injury to Thorpe and the events that came after had left an indelible mark on the psyches of both teams. Portland’s season, prior to that game, had been listless — it was the type of season that happened when a veteran team couldn’t get back off the mat after a long playoff run the year before.
Portland’s loss to the Pistons in the Finals was, perhaps, the most deflating moment of Clyde Drexler’s NBA career. He hadn’t performed all season to just fail at the most critical, crucial of times, but that’s exactly what happened; Detroit treated Drexler like Jordan and found Drexler to be a far easier opponent to deal with.
“I got beat up that series and couldn’t carry like I had all year,” Drexler recalled. “And the blows they dealt me, the way they treated my teammates … it stuck with all of us. We had the hangover of hangovers.”
Portland had gone from champions of the West to just barely sneaking in. If they had lost one game during the last week of the season, they would have watched the rival Sonics take their spot and they would have been left out. It would have been an embarrassing finish to a lackluster season.
But the Thorpe game energized Portland and got them across the finish line — and they weren’t afraid of Houston. They knew the Rockets were angry at them and they used that to their advantage. Game 1, in Houston, was a game that saw Portland win 111-101, and they spent the game targeting the Rockets most important player: Pippen, who would foul out early in the fourth and tank any chance his team had to win with him.
“I played stupid,” Pippen admitted after the game. “I let my feelings control me and that’s why we lost tonight.”
Pippen played well in Game 1 (16-5-10) but it was a bit of an underwhelming performance, especially for someone who nearly won the MVP (he finished third behind Jordan on the ballot that Olajuwon ultimately won).
Game 2 saw Pippen play out of this world: 40-6-5 with 3 steals, a block, and a perfect 8-8 from the line. It was Pippen’s highest scoring playoff game ever and he stayed out of foul trouble. Flanked by Payton (17-4-16) and Grant (15-16-7), the Rockets trio loudly declared that Portland wouldn’t be putting them down 0-2.
Game 3 saw the series shift to Portland, where the Blazers expected the home crowd to give them a boost. Rick Adelman tasked his veteran PG, Terry Porter, with stopping Gary Payton — Adelman suspected that if Payton could be made frustrated, that the rookie point man would help crash the Rockets.
Porter agreed with the idea. “Gary was doing great so far, but he was a rookie playing in his first road playoff game. History said he could be rattled,” Porter recalled. “He liked to talk, which just made it easier.”
The early portion of the game saw neither team get off to blazing offensive starts — fouls were exchanged and both teams were setting a tone for a tough, bruising night. Horace Grant would get whistled for his second foul with 8:31 left in the first and would be taken out for rookie center Terry Moncrief, much to Grant’s displeasure.
“I was pleading with Randy to let me stay in, that I’d keep it clean, but he didn’t budge,” Grant said. “He wanted me to stay available and I was riding the pine.”
What happened next saw the Rockets bench erupt.
Payton’s alley-oop to Pippen tied the game and started the Rockets up. Houston would lead by the time the first quarter ended, 28-22, would carry a 56-51 lead into halftime. Starting the second half, Coach Kern opted to leave Grant on the bench and keep rolling with Moncrief, who was playing solid defense. Minutes later, in a deadball situation, Moncrief would make a rather rude gesture towards a Portland player.
Portland didn’t find it funny and the two teams nearly came to blows again — and at that point Kern pulled Moncrief and put Grant back in, chiding the rookie big man. “It was immature … I can look back on it now and laugh a little, but in that game, I didn’t want to see that and I didn’t need to give Portland more fuel,” said Kern.
Gary Payton, however, thought it was hilarious and chatted about that moment the rest of the game at Porter. Porter would repeatedly foul Payton and find himself on the bench — the Rockets blew out the Blazers from the third quarter onward and Pippen surpassed his playoff high, set the night before, with 42 points.
It was an embarrassing loss for Portland, who were down 2-1, but they go some good news when they heard the Warriors had swept the T’Wolves (Minnesota had beaten Portland 3 out of 4 times that year) and were waiting in the second round. In Game 4 the Blazers came out and played with pride — it was a closeout game and Portland’s entire season was on the line.
They came out and played like it, getting a big third quarter that allowed them to close the lead with the Rockets, who ultimately had to go to overtime with the veteran Blazers. In OT, Pippen fouled out on a controversial shooting foul (to this day Pippen believes the refs were looking for a reason to prolong the series) and Portland escaped, 110-108, forcing a final Game 5.
For the Rockets players and coaches, a Game 5 back at home was just fine with them. They were mad they hadn’t been able to embarrass Portland on their home floor, but they were looking forward to humiliating them in Houston.
“We knew we would have won the previous game if Scottie wasn’t whistled for that phantom foul,” Kern told the local press the day before Game 5. “We had it. We’re going to finish it tonight.”
Kern’s confidence seemed both earned and unearned; on one hand, he’d guided the Rockets to a 58-win season and a first seed. On the other, he had never coached a team in a deciding playoff series contest. But his confidence — whether misplaced or just a front — inspired his players.
“He wasn’t faking it, not one *ucking bit,” said Payton. “He believed we got screwed over the game before and he knew we could put this team away. His pregame speech wasn’t a speech, he just told us to go out and stomp Portland’s *ss. That was it.”
The Rockets went on to do just that — a 35-18 first quarter was punctuated by Pippen eating.
Portland didn’t stand a chance and Drexler had his worst game of the series and his worst playoff game ever: 36 minutes, 9 points on 4-16 shooting, 1-2 from the line and no threes. Pippen, by comparison, feasted and topped his playoff high again — 43-8-2 with 4 steals and 3 blocks on an outrageous 18-30 from the floor.
Pippen’s confidence and swagger radiated off him that entire game, so much so that Portland’s players — most notably Terry Porter — lost their cool. It was a decisive win for Houston and an inglorious end for Portland. “That game,” Drexler said many years later, “was when I knew we had to make changes. We weren’t the same team anymore … we had gotten lapped.”
The Rockets celebrated advancing to the next round in their locker room, but it wasn’t anything over the top. Kern delivered one, final message before he dismissed his players for the night. “Don’t think this is it,” he told the room. “We can go further and we will, if we play together and if we play with focus. I want that *ucking championship trophy, don’t you?”
The locker room loudly cheered, “*uck yeah!”
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