THE NEXT STEP . . . : Rockets Are Talking Tall : After Ousting the Nuggets, Houston Comes to Forum as a Tower-Packed Team

When the Houston Rockets show up at the Forum this afternoon for their first big date with the Lakers, there are two things the Rockets promise not to be.

They will not be tired. They will not be pushovers either, they say.

For the first time since the construction of Houston’s Twin Towers two seasons ago, the Lakers and the Rockets are finally meeting in the playoffs, which just happens to be the Western Conference final.

Isn’t this what everyone has been waiting for?

“We know we can beat them--we just have to go out and prove it now,” said Ralph Sampson, one of the towers.

“We can play with them,” Sampson said. “Earlier in the year, we couldn’t. They were a much smarter team, and right now they’re probably still a much smarter team because of the experience factor, but we’ve made great strides.”

How much ground the Rockets have gained on the Lakers remains to be seen. That will certainly become clear in this best-of-seven series, beginning today at 12:30 p.m.

The Rockets fully understand that in order to get to the championship series, they must beat a Laker team that they are constantly measured against.

On paper at least, this seems to be a series involving teams with similar strengths. All the Rockets have to do is match Sampson and the other tower, Akeem Olajuwon, plus Rodney McCray, against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and the Kurt Rambis-Maurice Lucas tandem and still come out ahead.

Under the basket and on the open court, there is only one way to decide the winner, Sampson said.

“Who can outlast who?” he said. “Who can run up and down the court the longest?”

Of course, there are other individual duels to consider, such as Magic Johnson against Robert Reid, Byron Scott against Lewis Lloyd and Pat Riley against Bill Fitch, but much of the attention will be focused on the tallest players on the court.

The Lakers and Rockets traveled much the same path to get this far. Just as the Lakers swept San Antonio and went six games against Dallas, the Rockets wiped out Sacramento, then knocked Denver out of the playoffs in a six-game series.

Houston needed two overtimes to defeat the Nuggets at Denver in Game 6, which was an emotionally draining experience for the Rockets but apparently was not one that hurt them physically.

“The surprising thing is we didn’t leave a whole lot there,” Reid said. “Look at it. Ralph fouled out, Akeem got thrown out, Jim Peterson fouled out and I fouled out. So we’re pretty well rested.

“Denver has prepared us for every phase of the game that the Lakers can throw at us, whether it’s a pressure game, a blowout game, a running game, a defensive game or whatever. We honestly feel like we’re over-prepared right now.”

There could be one rather large gulf separating these two teams. The Lakers have known all along that they would very likely be right where they are now. That is not true of the Rockets.

“They (the Lakers) have proven they can beat anybody and belong up there, beating Boston,” Sampson said. “We haven’t made it there yet.”

Early in the season, Sampson was annoyed that the Rockets were apparently willing to set their goals too low. He thought that the Rockets were overly cautious in their approach to winning, that the franchise didn’t want to expect too much too soon and disappoint the fans.

Now, the Rockets are playing as if they’re pushing their timetable ahead.

“Back then, when I said those things, the organization was preaching to me, ‘We may be a couple of players away,’ ” Sampson said. “I thought we should put it together right away. I think we can win the championship if we just concentrate.”

Only the Lakers are in Houston’s way of a potential championship series with the Celtics. Reid said the Rockets are not going to be satisfied by just playing in the conference final.

“It would be like us saying, ‘Well, fellas, we got here,’ ” he said. “ ‘America has been waiting to see us. If nothing comes of it, at least they saw us.’ That’s not our attitude.

“Our goal isn’t completed until we can raise our finger up and give the No. 1 sign,” he said.

Fitch fully appreciates what the Lakers have been able to accomplish in Riley’s five years as coach. Five trips to the championship finals is nothing to underestimate.

Fitch said the Lakers ought to be fully motivated, if for no other reason than trying to repeat as champions.

“They are a team without weaknesses,” Fitch said. “We know we’re always going to get some recognition playing them. So far, it hasn’t always been good. The old man, Kareem, has risen to the occasion more than once.

“But we’re not looking for any moral victories,” he said. “We’re here to win. You have to look at it like we may not be back here again soon.”

The Rockets are here now, though, and so are the Lakers, who may not be overly impressed with the confidence the Rockets are showing. Sampson said the Rockets have to be realistic about the Lakers.

“I think they have the edge with the team they have, but I’m sure they would be worried about us,” Sampson said. “I’ll see them at 12:30.”

Laker Notes Akeem Olajuwon said there wasn’t much to his fourth-quarter ejection from Game 6 in Denver. Referee Jack Madden gave Olajuwon a double technical foul and threw him out of the game when Olajuwon spun him around because of a disputed foul. “It was all a misunderstanding,” Olajuwon said. Robert Reid thought that Olajuwon learned a lesson. “Sitting in that locker room made him realize how much we really needed him,” Reid said. “What if this was Game 7 of the championships and he got thrown out? From now on, he’s going to play the game and not get caught up in the refereeing.”

The Lakers called off practice Friday after having been delayed for three hours in the Dallas airport. They were forced to change planes after the airline received a threat. . . . How young are the Rockets? Their starting lineup averages 25.8 years. The Laker starters are almost as young except for 39-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrecking the curve. They average 28.6. . . . The last time the Lakers met Houston in the playoffs was in 1981, when the Rockets won the mini-series, 2-1.

Ralph Sampson said he now knows what Abdul-Jabbar has gone through during his career. “People are going to look at you first because you’re tall,” Sampson said. “They figure that basketball players who are tall should be able to do everything. And never get hurt. Kareem’s had to deal with it for 17 years, and I’m just learning how to deal with it. This was my first year where it really took effect. At the beginning of the year, I went into a slump and I had the home fans booing me, not wanting me to play and talking about being traded. You’ve got to learn from that.”