The Portland Trail Blazers are running out of plans to contain Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon.
They tried single coverage to put more pressure on Houston's outside shooters and Olajuwon burned them with 46 points and a late shot-blocking display as the Rockets beat the Blazers 115-104 on Sunday night to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 Western Conference series."I don't think anyone can cover him one-on-one, he showed them that tonight," teammate Kenny Smith said. "We wouldn't cover any of the great scorers in the league one-on-one. It's a tribute to him that he stepped up and made the plays."
The Blazers double-teamed Olajuwon in Friday night's opener. Olajuwon still scored 26 points and Vernon Maxwell added 24, including 10 straight in the fourth quarter of a 114-104 victory.
Now what do the Blazers do in Tuesday night's Game 3 in Portland?
"They've done a great job against us, obviously," guard Rod Strickland said. "All we can do is work hard and be aggressive and see what happens. If we do what we have to do offensively at home, we'll be all right.
"They give it to him and he makes all the decisions. They just work off him. There's nothing wrong with that."
Olajuwon is accustomed to drawing double coverage.
"The one-on-one coverage was an experiment to see what would happen," Olajuwon said. "It was a good try. I was able to use my basic moves and my favorite shots to break down their defense.
"It was a surprise at first, but I made some adjustments."
Olajuwon had 10 points in the first quarter and helped the Rockets to a 57-47 halftime lead. Portland led only once in the game, 4-2.
The Trail Blazers stayed close in the fourth quarter, but every time they tried to get the deficit below five, Olajuwon was there to stop them.
"He adjusted to what we did to him in the last game," Blazers center Clifford Robinson said. "He was a little more patient. He watched where we can from and adjusted."
Olajuwon had six blocked shots and eight rebounds.
Olajuwon blocked a shot by Clyde Drexler, his former teammate at the University of Houston, with 1:38 left.
Then, with 1:11 to play, he caught up with Strickland on a fast break and swatted away a layup that would have cut Houston's lead to 104-100.
"It was just a reaction play," Olajuwon said. "I tried my best to get to the ball. He probably saw me, but he didn't have any idea I could cover so much space so quickly."
The closest Portland got in the late-going was 98-93 with 4:38 left.
"With the Dream in the middle blocking every shot, and shooting 15-foot fadeaways there's nothing you can do," Drexler said. "We've got to come up with something else. We've got to do something difference in Game 3 and I don't know what it is."
Thorpe had 19 points and 12 rebounds and Vernon Maxwell added 17 points for Houston. Robinson led Portland with 28 points, Strickland had 26, Harvey Grant 14 and Drexler 13.
Phoenix 117, Golden State 111
The Suns played 24 playoff games last season, while the Golden State Warriors stayed home.
It showed Sunday as the Suns rallied to beat the Warriors 117-111 to take a 2-0 lead in best-of-5 Western Conference series.
The Suns are the only team to go 0-2 at home and then win a five-game series, coming back on the Los Angeles Lakers last year. Only Fort Wayne (1956), Golden State (1987) and New York (1990) have won in five after dropping their first two on the road.
"I don't know what switch got turned on, but we did get it going finally," said A.C. Green, who made two free throws in the third quarter to give Phoenix the lead for good at 88-86.
Whatever the switch was, Kevin Johnson was hooked up to it.
The 6-foot-1 point guard scored 15 points in the last 5:02 of the third quarter, when the Suns came from four points behind to lead 91-86.
Johnson finished with a playoff career-high 38 points, hitting 15 of 31 attempts from the field to set a team playoff record for attempts. Current coach Paul Westphal had 30 in 1979.
Charles Barkley scored 20 points and Dan Majerle 17, including two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
"You know Barkley and KJ are going to get their points, but when Majerle and Ainge hit those 3's during that run, and they had things going on the inside and outside - that was hard for us to handle," said Golden State's Chris Mullin, who had 19 points in the third quarter and 32 overall.
Sprewell added 19 for the Warriors, and Chris Webber scored 17.
But Sprewell, a second-year player, couldn't contain Johnson, and he lost his temper after he fouled Green to stop a break with the Warriors leading 86-85.
"Sprewell got the technical and that ignited us a little bit, gave us a free throw," Barkley said. "We were on the line already, so it gave us three straight points, and that was a big play."
The Suns finished the quarter on an 8-0 run, and experience struck again when Danny Ainge, playing in his 175th playoff game, started the fourth with a 3-pointer that made it 94-86.
Ainge clinched it with 3:05 to play on an 18-footer from the corner that made the score 116-104.
The Suns didn't make another field goal, but the 12-point lead was too much for the Warriors to overcome.
"They tightened up their defense and became very physical," Warriors coach Don Nelson said. "You can talk all you want about the physical nature and seriousness of a game, but if you are not in there, you can't understand it."