1995 NBA Finals: Rockets' Back-to-Back Triumph

On June seventh, nineteen ninety five, the Houston Rockets won one of the most pivotal games in the NBA Finals versus the Orlando Magic, a game that still haunts Magic fans to this day and would lead to the Houston Rockets sweeping the Magic through the series. Learn all about this series today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And today's trivia question to listen out for is what was the Houston Rockets nickname for their championship run? So let's go back to nineteen ninety five. Forrest Gump had just won the Oscar for the Best Picture and Backstreet Boys Kulio, Madonna, Janet, and Michael Jackson where all anyone was listening to on the radio and everyone was watching Seinfeld and Friends and Hershey bar only costs fifty cents and a dozen eggs only cost eighty seven cents. It was an interesting time and there was a few other things headlining the news in the NBA, and the major thing being that Michael Jordan was back in the NBA. He had retired previously to pursue baseball, and this allowed a great opportunity in nineteen ninety four for the Houston Rockets to win their very first title against the New York Knicks, who if Michael Jordan had still been playing, most likely would have been facing after they had just won three in a row previously. But in nineteen ninety five mid season, Michael Jordan returned to the Bulls, but he wasn't enough to take that Bulls team back to the finals, as there was a young, upstart team in the Orlando Magic, taking Florida and the nation by storm. And that was the Orlando Magic. Not only did they have this larger than live figure in Shaquille O'Neill who's still larger than life to this day and the name Shack is known worldwide, but his running mate Penny Hardway was just as popular and even had his own commercials with a little doll that looked like Penny Hardway for Nike that were very popular. And this was only the sixth season in existence for the Magic and they were everywhere, and they had had a great team before with just Shaquille O'Neill and Penny Hardway, but with the addition of Horace grant from the Bulls previously helped raise the franchise and helped them actually beat the Bulls and Michael Jordan in the second round of the playoffs, and then they would beat the Pacers in a seven game series to make it to their very first NBA Finals. But the Houston Rockets were coming back and when they're defending champion and they were essentially running the team back that they had from the previous year where they featured Hakim Elaijuan Kenny, the Jet Smith, and big shot Rob Or. But after starting off hot, they were struggling in at midseason. On Valentine's Day, they made a huge trade for cly the Glide Drexler from the Portland Trailblazers, coming back to his hometown where he played with Hakeem Elijauan at the University of Houston, giving the Rockets the nickname for that season of Clutch City. But this not initially changed their fortune, as they only won forty seven games that year and were only a sixth seed in the NBA Playoffs. Despite that, they took care of Karmelone and John Stockton out of Utah that first series, beating them three to two. And then they went to Phoenix facing off against a Charles Barkley led team which included Danny Ainge, Dan Jerrold, and Danny Manning. And it was an all Texas Western Conference final, facing off against San Antonio and the league MVP that year in David Robinson, who they were able to beat in six games, and this set up a great matchup against one of the most established Hall of Fame Sinners of all time in Hakeem Elijauan who averaged over time twenty points and ten rebounds for his entire career, facing off against an up and coming Hall of Famer in Shaquille O'Neill. This harkened back to the days when Sinners were ruling the NBA with Bill Russell and Chamberlain both were leading their teams, but both had great running mates in Clyde Drexler for a Keeme and Penny Hardway for Shaquille O'Neal, which made this an exciting series. It was kind of old school versus new school. And so we come to Game one set on June seventh, nineteen ninety five. So the game takes place in Orlando, with the Orlando Magic hosting in Orlando in front of sixteen thousand fans and the magic take off in the first quarter, leading at the end thirty to nineteen, and they would maintain that lead until halftime, leading sixty one to fifty. But in the third quarter, Houston Rockets would come out on fire, scoring thirty seven points in a quarter to Orlando's nineteen, making it a c game. In the fourth quarter, and with just ten seconds left, Orlando led one one hundred and ten to one oh seven when their best shooter, Nick Anderson, was intentionally fouled to send him to the free throw line to ice the game. On average that season, he was a seventy percent free throw shooter, but he missed both free throws to ice the game, but he was able to grab the offensive rebound. It was intentionally fouled again and given the chance to make two more free throws in the game, and he missed both of them. Missing four free throws back to back was incredible. Houston grabbed the rebound after that fourth miss and would tie the game with one point six seconds left off of a Kenney Smith three point shot, sending the game into overtime where they were tied eighteen to one eighteen when Clyde Drexler attempted to make a finger roll shot but missed, and a Keema Elijwon tipped it in with points three seconds left on the clock, essentially ending the game with the Houston Rockets win. Keem Elijuan dominated the game with thirty one points, but Orlando had a great game between Hardwaight and O'Neal, both scoring twenty six, but it wasn't enough to win that first game, and in heartbreaking way when they had it at the end of regulation, they just needed Nick Anderson to make one of four free throws. After that game two, again in Orlando, the Magic just didn't have it that game. The Rockets came out dominating, leading the first quarter twenty eight to nineteen. At halftime, the Rockets had over a twenty point lead, and though the Magic would fight back, they would still lose one seventeen to one oh six. Keim o Elijuan had a thirty four point game and O'Neill tried his best to match him with thirty three, but it wasn't enough and they went back to Houston with the Rockets leading to zero. On June eleventh, in Houston, the Magic were here to try I'd have right the stage again, fighting in the first half to be down only one point, and they kept the game close the entire way, and in the fourth quarter, as the game was coming to an end, they were down one oh one to one to one hundred when Robert Ory, known for his big shots, hits a three pointer to give Houston the lead one oh four to one hundred. With fourteen seconds left, Penny Hardway misses a three pointer and even though they get the rebound, they turn it over to Houston, who would go on to win one oh six to one oh three, leading three games to zero. As you've heard previously on yesterday's episode, no team has ever come back from three to zero in any point in the playoffs. That doesn't mean that the Magic couldn't win, they just didn't have anything left in the tank. Although the Magic had a four point lead at halftime, the Rockets came back with the chem Elaijuan leading the way with thirty five points in fifteen rebounds, winning their second straight NBA title with a score of one thirteen to one oh one. And this great matchup between sinners was clearly won by Hikim Elijahwan, who scored over thirty points in every single game, outscoring O'Neill every single time, winning his second straight Finals MVP, joining in the likes of Michael Jordan, the only other player to win the Finals MVP back to back years. But despite the success, sadly they could not continue as this started another three peat for the Chicago Bulls and the Rockets were even able to make the finals the following year, being swept by the Seattle SuperSonics in the second round, and the Rockets have yet to make it back to the finals again. But the following year, the Magic again would set a franchise record, winning sixty games, but were swept by the Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals and in the offseason, the great team they built was officially over when Shaquille O'Neal left as a free agent for the Los Angeles Lakers, and they would not get back to the finals again until two thousand and set. And I want to thank you for listening to Today's Daily Sports History, and I want to thank Brian Thomas from Twitter who suggested this topic. And if you want us to cover a topic for you, all you need to do is leave us for a review wherever you're listening, or send us at Daily Sports History at gmail dot com. Let us know your name and what topic you want us to cover and we'll get that done for you. Come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question? What was the nickname of the Houston Rockets team that made it to the NBA Finals Clutch City.