Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Who’s The Greatest? Orlando, Houston Square Off Tonight At 6 In Finals Pitting Strikingly Similar Teams

When the euphoria of Sunday night’s Game 7 victory wore off, Orlando assistant coach Richie Adubato hit the videotape room Monday morning and turned his attention to the Houston Rockets.

What he saw made him pause several times to blink.

“The teams are so similar that it’s frightening,” Adubato said. “It’s like carbon copy. I’m looking at all their plays; I’m looking at our plays. We probably have seven plays that are similar because of the fact we have the same type of personnel.”

The similarities between these NBA Finals opponents extend well beyond the Shaquille O’Neal-Hakeem Olajuwon matchup in the middle.

Both teams rely on proper spacing and consistent perimeter shooting to complement their inside games. Both like to run. Both play better defense than given credit for. Both lack depth. Both win despite often getting outrebounded.

It is a meeting of mirror images. When the Finals commence tonight at Orlando Arena, there likely won’t be any surprises or secrets. It will come down, Adubato said, to offensive execution, defensive rebounding and defense in transition.

“It certainly will be another memorable matchup at center, with Hakeem, the prominent veteran, against Shaq, the up-and-coming heir apparent,” Houston vice president of operations Bob Weinhauer said. “But it also will be a match of two excellent perimeter teams that both just happen to have dominant centers.”

Since O’Neal entered the NBA three years ago, the Magic and the Rockets have met six times. Orlando has won four of the meetings, including both matchups this season.

In this year’s meetings, Orlando occasionally had power forward Horace Grant guarding Olajuwon, in an effort to keep O’Neal out of foul trouble. O’Neal and Orlando coach Brian Hill have said they haven’t decided whether that trend will continue, whether the Magic will try to play Olajuwon straight up, or double him.

In other words, they know, but they aren’t saying.

“I just have to stay on the ground because he’s very herky-jerky, he has a lot of moves,” O’Neal said. “I just have to stay out of foul trouble and stay in the game. He’s probably going to get his (points), but we’ll probably have to shut all the other guys down. If we do that, we’ll be OK.”

That chore will be easier said than done for both teams. Orlando has made an average of eight 3-pointers a game during the playoffs, shot 49 percent and averaged 101.4 points in a supposedly defensive-minded Eastern Conference playoff bracket.

Two of the NBA’s better defensive teams, Chicago and Indiana, were unable to keep the Magic from dictating a quicker offensive tempo. The Magic shot 53 percent or better in six of the seven games against the Pacers.

The Rockets have been just as explosive. They are averaging 105.4 points in the playoffs, 49 percent shooting and 8.4 3-pointers per game.

“If they start the team that they started against San Antonio (in the last two games of the Western Conference final), which is (Robert) Horry at power forward instead of small forward, they are very, very quick,” said Adubato, who knows plenty about Western Conference playoff tempo, having spent seven seasons with the Mavericks, including 1989-93 as head coach.

“They really push the ball, and they shoot 3s in transition.

“So, No. 1, you have to get back (on defense).”

The Magic expect the Rockets to use smaller lineups, as they did against the Spurs, to try and force Orlando to go with smaller lineups. Otherwise, O’Neal and power forward Horace Grant will have to play more perimeter defense than Orlando would like.

But Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich is experiencing similar headaches trying to figure out how to stop Orlando. “It’s a big challenge because they have so many weapons,” Tomjanovich said.

Unlike Olajuwon, who is deadly from anywhere inside 20 feet, O’Neal does 99.9 percent of his offensive work within 5 feet of the basket. He will use his strength to force his way to the blocks and try to wear down Olajuwon. While Houston has an effective post-up guard in Clyde Drexler, Orlando has one in 6-7 point guard Anfernee Hardaway.

Both teams should be well aware of the series’ defensive keys because with Olajuwon and O’Neal, they experience it in their own practices each day. Because both offenses will try to spread the court as much as possible, defensive rotations have to be fast and decisive.

“One of the big things that will be involved here will be foul trouble and how the officials call the low post,” Adubato said. “Because neither team can afford to lose their stars. I think our ace in the hole there is Horace Grant. Because when Shaq does get a foul, a lot of times we can shift Horace over on Hakeem and keep Shaq in the game.

“That would present some problems for Shaq, naturally, because if Horry’s in the game, he (O’Neal) has got to get out and defend the 3-point shot. But he’s more versatile than people think.”

Game 2 is Friday night in Orlando, also at 6, with the series shifting to Houston for the next three games, starting with Game 3 Sunday afternoon at 4:30.