Rockets Like Chances With Guards Hitting From Outside And Hakeem Inside, Champs Show Winning Mix

The Houston Rockets came home feeling good about themselves, and coach Rudy Tomjanovich wants to keep it that way.

They set an NBA record with 19 3-point baskets to beat Utah 140-126 in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series. Also, they almost won the first game before falling 102-100 in the final 2 seconds.

Now comes the hard part - keeping the feeling going into Wednesday night’s Game 3 in The Summit.

“I’ve talked about us being in a similar situation maybe three or four times during the season,” Tomjanovich said. “We’re home, we’ve gone out and done real good work on the road, and we come back with a chance to get a good home string going and we haven’t responded. We can’t let that happen this time.”

Winning at home hasn’t been a given for the Rockets this season. During their championship season the Rockets dominated opponents in the Summit, compiling a 35-6 record. This year they were 25-16.

They need no more reminders that the best-of-five series is far from over.

“Somebody has to win two games now,” Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. “We have to keep that in perspective and really play well on the road.”

Utah has a way of deflating confident home teams.

“It’s not over, it’s just tied,” guard Mario Elie said.

The Jazz entered the playoffs with the second-best regular-season record in the NBA, and they were among the best road teams in the regular season with a 27-14 record. At one stretch, the Jazz won 15 straight road games.

“I expect them to come out very strong and very determined and on a mission, just like we came out up there,” Tomjanovich said. “It’s going to be a tough series. They’ve got great players who can execute under pressure.”

Getting burned from 3-point range was nothing new for the Jazz. They’ve had trouble defending outside before but they’d never been dissected quite so thoroughly.

“We weren’t even close to defending them,” Sloan said. “They came out and fired it down our throats. We weren’t ready from the first two or three plays. We weren’t doing what we said we wanted to do on defense.”

The Rockets are shooting 58 percent for the two games, and they also have a twogame average of .585 from 3-point range.

“We would like to build from here,” Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon said. “We know what we are capable of doing when everybody has the same goal. It’s just a matter of staying focused.”