While Shaq Slacks, Houston Rockets Toward Title

The obvious difference between Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal is that Olajuwon is art and O’Neal is craft.

Another one is that Olajuwon runs back on defense.

While the first is why Houston is aesthetically superior to Orlando, the second is why the Rockets are leading the Magic by three games to none in the NBA Finals.

“Transition,” said Orlando coach Brian Hill. “Again they beat us in transition.”

For the casually curious watching at home, and there should be less and less now that this thing has all the suspense of an execution, let me explain what transition is. That is when you see everybody running to one side of the television screen. Then they kind of all slow down and throw the ball around. Eventually coming into the picture will be No. 32 of Orlando. Maybe not.

This is because the Magic will inconsiderately run down the floor before O’Neal is ready to join them.

Sometimes O’Neal does not even play with his own teammates, allowing them to go four on five.

I counted at least eight points scored by Houston because O’Neal was still on the other side of halfcourt when he should have been back on defense.

All three games have been close enough that if O’Neal had played every minute he was on the floor, it could have easily have been 3-0 the other way around.

Orlando is already lining up alibis. Nick Anderson’s foul shots, Dennis Scott’s field goal misses, Horace Grant’s lack of rebounding, Penny Hardaway’s poor choices. But the reason the Magic are losing is that O’Neal will settle for losing.

The otherwise superior Olajuwon does not need O’Neal to just give him points. And for a world that was expecting to see two great centers playing each other, it will have to be content to believe that Olajuwon is good enough to be twins.

The great matchup of today’s and tomorrow’s centers is being won by today, and it is too late for tomorrow to get the lead out.

No team has ever come back from where Orlando is, but then no team had ever come back from where they put themselves by losing two games - also in transition - back in Orlando.

“We’re going to act like we are down three instead of up three,” said Houston forward Robert Horry. “We’re going to play hard, super hard.”

The team that is really down three should heed this conviction, especially the lethargic O’Neal, who should be carrying the Magic on his shoulders. He is big enough. And the load would at least be an explanation for his tardiness.

What this Finals has done for the two centers is to exalt Olajuwon and expose O’Neal.

Olajuwon is all spins and speed and trust, able to play even better when circumstance demands. It isn’t that O’Neal is lumps and clanks and knobs, which he is, but it is that he is playing as if this not his fight.

“Despite the loss,” said Hill, “I am very much happier with the play. We are proud. We will be ready.”

Despite that iceberg, captain, I thought the Titanic handled pretty well.

This is over. And this is over not because the Rockets are better than the Magic, but because O’Neal only has one speed and that is roughly the speed of evaporation.

“We try to do things modestly,” coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “We don’t trash talk. And this is not saying anything against Orlando, but when we play and work together, we expect to win every game.”

And now Houston has four games to get one victory to repeat as NBA champions.

Or, as they say around here, deja two. Pardner.