1994–95 Houston Rockets season

1994–95 Houston Rockets season
NBA Champions
Conference Champions
Head coach Rudy Tomjanovich
Owner(s) Leslie Alexander
Arena The Summit (Houston)
Results
Record 47–35 (.573)
Place Division: 3rd (Midwest)
Conference: 6th (Western)
Playoff finish NBA Champions

Stats @ Basketball-Reference.com

The 1994-95 NBA season was the Rockets' 28th season in the NBA, and 24th season in Houston.[1] After winning their first championship, the Rockets went on to win their first nine games of the season. However, with increased competition in the West, management felt a change was needed to win another title. On February 14, the Rockets traded Otis Thorpe to the Portland Trailblazers for All-Star Clyde Drexler. However, after the trade, the Rockets struggled in the second half of the season posting a record of 17-18 on their way to finishing third in the Midwest Division with a 47-35 record.

In the playoffs, the Rockets faced the third-seeded Utah Jazz in the first round. The Jazz would take a 2-1 lead, but the Rockets went on to win the series in five games. In the semifinals, they faced the Phoenix Suns for the second consecutive year. The Rockets managed to defeat the second-seed Suns in seven games to advance to the Western Conference Finals. In the all Texas Western Conference, they faced the top seeded San Antonio Spurs. both teams lacked home court advantage in the series, only winning on the road until the Rockets won Game 6 at The Summit and advanced to the NBA Finals. In the Finals, they swept the Orlando Magic in four straight games, and won their second consecutive championship.

Offseason

NBA Draft

Round Pick Player Position Nationality School or club team
2 53 Albert Burditt Forward  United States Texas

Roster

Houston Rockets roster
Players Coaches
Pos. No. Name Height Weight DOB (YYYY–MM–DD) From
SF 15 United States Breaux, Tim 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 215 lb (98 kg) Wyoming
PF 52 United States Brown, Chucky 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 214 lb (97 kg) North Carolina State
PF 44 United States Caldwell, Adrian 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 265 lb (120 kg) Lamar
PG 10 United States Cassell, Sam 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 185 lb (84 kg) Florida State
PF 32 United States Chilcutt, Pete 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 230 lb (104 kg) North Carolina
SG 22 United States Drexler, Clyde 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 210 lb (95 kg) Houston
SF 17 United States Elie, Mario 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 210 lb (95 kg) American International
PF 7 United States Herrera, Carl  6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 215 lb (98 kg) Houston
SF 25 United States Horry, Robert 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 220 lb (100 kg) Alabama
PF 27 United States Jones, Charles 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 215 lb (98 kg) Albany State
SG 11 United States Maxwell, Vernon 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Florida
SF 31 United States Murray, Tracy 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 225 lb (102 kg) UCLA
C 34 Nigeria Olajuwon, Hakeem (C) 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 255 lb (116 kg) Houston
PG 30 United States Smith, Kenny 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 170 lb (77 kg) North Carolina
C 55 Croatia Tabak, Žan 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 245 lb (111 kg) Croatia
Head coach
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (DP) Unsigned draft pick
  • (FA) Free agent
  • (S) Suspended
  • Injured

Roster

Depth chart

Pos. Starter Bench Reserve Inactive
C Hakeem Olajuwon Charles Jones Žan Tabak
PF Robert Horry Pete Chilcutt
SF Clyde Drexler Chucky Brown Carl Herrera Tim Breaux
Tracy Murray
SG Mario Elie Vernon Maxwell
PG Kenny Smith Sam Cassell

Regular season

Season standings

Midwest Division W L PCT GB Home Road Div
y-San Antonio Spurs 62 20 .756 — 33–8 29–12 20–6
x-Utah Jazz 60 22 .732 2 33–8 27–14 17–9
x-Houston Rockets 47 35 .573 15 25–16 22–19 13–13
x-Denver Nuggets 41 41 .500 21 23–18 18–23 13–13
Dallas Mavericks 36 46 .439 26 19–22 17–24 11–15
Minnesota Timberwolves 21 61 .256 41 13–28 8–33 4–22

[2]

Player stats

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game

Regular season

Player GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
Tim Breaux 42 2 8.1 .372 .240 .653 .8 .4 .26 .10 3.0
Scott Brooks 28 0 6.6 .538 .471 .857 .5 .8 .29 .04 3.4
Chucky Brown 41 14 19.9 .603 .333 .613 4.6 .7 .27 .34 6.1
Adrian Caldwell 7 0 4.3 .250 .000 .500 1.4 .0 .14 .00 .7
Sam Cassell 82 1 23.0 .427 .330 .843 2.6 4.9 1.15 .17 9.5
Pete Chilcutt 68 17 19.8 .445 .407 .738 4.7 1.0 .37 .63 5.3
Clyde Drexler 35 34 37.1 .506 .357 .809 7.0 4.4 1.77 .66 21.4
Mario Elie 81 13 23.4 .499 .398 .842 2.4 2.3 .80 .15 8.8
Carl Herrera 61 26 21.8 .523 .000 .624 4.6 .7 .66 .62 6.8
Robert Horry 64 61 32.4 .447 .379 .761 5.1 3.4 1.47 1.19 10.2
Charles Jones 3 0 12.0 .333 .000 .500 2.3 .0 .00 .33 1.0
Vernon Maxwell 64 54 31.8 .394 .324 .688 2.6 4.3 1.17 .20 13.3
Tracy Murray 25 0 8.1 .400 .422 .625 .9 .2 .28 .12 3.5
Hakeem Olajuwon 72 72 39.6 .517 .188 .756 10.8 3.5 1.85 3.36 27.8
Kenny Smith 81 81 25.1 .484 .429 .851 1.9 4.0 .88 .12 10.4
Žan Tabak 37 0 4.9 .453 .000 .614 1.5 .1 .05 .19 2.0
Otis Thorpe 36 35 33.0 .563 .000 .528 8.9 1.6 .61 .36 13.3

Playoffs

Player GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
Chucky Brown 21 0 15.5 .447 .500 .676 3.1 .3 .43 .10 4.5
Sam Cassell 22 0 22.0 .438 .400 .835 1.9 4.0 .95 .09 11.0
Pete Chilcutt 20 0 16.2 .484 .389 .824 2.9 .9 .35 .20 4.5
Clyde Drexler 22 22 38.6 .481 .303 .786 7.0 5.0 1.50 .68 20.5
Mario Elie 22 22 28.9 .504 .431 .795 2.8 2.5 .95 .05 9.1
Carl Herrera 1 0 6.0 1.000 .000 .000 .0 1.0 .00 .00 2.0
Robert Horry 22 22 38.2 .445 .400 .744 7.0 3.5 1.45 1.18 13.1
Charles Jones 19 0 12.5 .385 .000 .333 2.3 .0 .21 .53 .7
Vernon Maxwell 1 0 16.0 .143 .000 1.000 3.0 1.0 .00 .00 3.0
Hakeem Olajuwon 22 22 42.2 .531 .500 .681 10.3 4.5 1.18 2.82 33.0
Kenny Smith 22 22 29.6 .438 .442 .900 2.2 4.5 .64 .14 10.8
Žan Tabak 8 0 3.9 .400 .000 1.000 .1 .1 .12 .38 .8

Playoffs

West First Round

(3) Utah Jazz vs. (6) Houston Rockets: Rockets win series 3-2

Last Playoff Meeting: 1994 Western Conference Finals (Houston won 4-1)

West Conference Semifinals

(2) Phoenix Suns vs. (6) Houston Rockets: Rockets win series 4-3

Last Playoff Meeting: 1994 Western Conference Semifinals (Houston won 4-3)

West Conference Finals

(1) San Antonio Spurs vs. (6) Houston Rockets: Rockets win series 4-2

Last Playoff Meeting: 1981 Western Conference Semifinals (Houston won 4-3)

NBA finals

1995 NBA Finals Roster

Head Coach: Rudy Tomjanovich
Hakeem Olajuwon | Clyde Drexler | Kenny Smith | Robert Horry | Sam Cassell | Mario Elie | Carl Herrera | Vernon Maxwell | Chucky Brown | Pete Chilcutt | Tracy Murray | Tim Breaux | Zan Tabak | Charles Jones | Adrian Caldwell |

Olajuwon vs. O'Neal

Although both centers played well, Olajuwon is generally considered to have outplayed O'Neal. Olajuwon outscored O'Neal in every game of the series and became one of the few players in NBA history to score at least 30 points in every game of an NBA Finals series:[3][4]

1995 NBA Finals Gm 1 Gm 2 Gm 3 Gm 4 Totals
Hakeem Olajuwon 31 34 31 35 32.8 ppg
Shaquille O'Neal 26 33 28 25 28.0 ppg

By winning his second straight NBA Finals MVP award, Hakeem Olajuwon became the sixth player to win the award on multiple occasions, joining Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. Jordan and Olajuwon at the time were the only players to win the award consecutively. Later, O'Neal himself would go on to win the award in three consecutive seasons with the Lakers (2000–02), as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James would later on join the list as well.

Series Summary

Game Date Home Team Result Road Team
Game 1 June 7 Orlando 118-120 Houston
Game 2 June 9 Orlando 106-117 Houston
Game 3 June 11 Houston 106-103 Orlando
Game 4 June 14 Houston 113-101 Orlando

Rockets win series 4-0

Award winners

References

  1. ↑ 1994-95 Houston Rockets
  2. ↑ 1994-95 NBA Season Summary - Basketball-Reference.com
  3. ↑ History of the NBA Finals: Hakeem Olajuwon: The NBA’s Best In The Mid ’90s, hollywoodsportsbook.com, accessed February 16, 2007.
  4. ↑ NBA Finals Records, Basketball.com, accessed February 16, 2007.
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