Centers Ready For Showdown Olajuwon, Robinson Face Off With State Title On Line

Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson are resuming their longsimmering rivalry in the huge Texas showdown that is doubling as the Western Conference finals.

“This is definitely the biggest stakes that we’ve had since we’ve started playing each other,” said Robinson, whose San Antonio Spurs face Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series tonight.

The defending NBA champion Rockets advanced with a 115-114 Game 7 victory Saturday at Phoenix.

It was the eighth straight playoff elimination game the Rockets have won in two years and the first time a visiting team had won a Game 7 since Philadelphia in 1982. Indiana matched the feat Sunday against New York.

“The higher we go, the tougher it gets,” Olajuwon said. “We can use the one we just finished as a building block for the next one.”

The Spurs, who had the NBA’s best regular-season record, 62-20, reached the finals for the first time in 12 years by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday in Game 6.

This marks the first time two Texas professional sports teams have met in such a high-level contest. Houston and San Antonio last met in the playoffs in 1981 when the Rockets beat the Spurs in the first round.

“I didn’t play for the state championship in high school, so this will be fun,” Spurs guard Doc Rivers said. “They need to get some kind of trophy for the winner, a state trophy.”

The Robinson-Olajuwon duel could be their most momentous yet. It also could get bogged down in fouls, something Spurs coach Bob Hill doesn’t want to see.

“I just hope that they let them play, let both guys really play. I think if that happens, it’ll be a great series,” he said. “Both teams initiate a lot of offense through those guys.”

San Antonio hopes to take advantage of possible fatigue brought on by the Rockets’ hectic playoff schedule the first two rounds.

“They have to be tired… . They’re humans,” Hill said. “You have to respect what they’ve done, and obviously we want to take advantage of the fact that they should be tired.”

Houston was down 2-1 in its first-round series with Utah, but rallied to win the best-of-5 series 3-2, despite lacking homecourt advantage. In the semifinal, trailing Phoenix 3-1, the Rockets came back to win the last three games and the series. Houston is only the fifth team in history to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series.

Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said he wished his team had gotten some rest after their emotional victory in Phoenix. But the Rockets jetted to San Antonio on Saturday night and planned to practice late Sunday afternoon.

“We can talk all we want, but no matter what you say, all that adrenalin going through your body takes a lot out of you,” Tomjanovich said.

The Rockets lost five of six regularseason games to the Spurs.

Considering their “Clutch City” reputation and their record so far in the playoffs, that means little to the Rockets or the Spurs.

“They handled us pretty well in the regular season, so it’s going to be an interesting series,” said Mario Elie, whose 3-pointer with 7.1 seconds left Saturday gave the Rockets the lead for good. “Everybody’s picking them to win it. So we’ve just got to go and grab it out of the hat again.”