Rockets Have Sputtered for Most of the Season

The Houston Rockets, deemed the team of the future after last season’s dethroning of the Lakers, took the big plunge this season.

They went from 14 victories in 1983 to a club-record 51 last season. This season, following a year in which they lost to the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals, they endured one controversy after another.

“Last year, everything fell into place,” Rockets guard Robert Reid said. “Those are things of the past for now. We’ve gone through a season of losing people. I wish this season would hurry up and end.”

The Rockets have struggled to stay at .500.

“I’ve got goals set in my mind as a coach,” Coach Bill Fitch said. “I’m trying to do the best I can to finish the race, but I’m thinking down the road. I want to know if we do make some changes, where and how we make them.”

Last year, Houston became one of the NBA’s most feared clubs behind the awesome talents of 7-footers Ralph Sampson and Akeem Olajuwon. The Twin Towers along with Reid, Lewis Lloyd and Rodney McCray formed a formidable starting unit despite the loss of John Lucas because of cocaine abuse.

Mitchell Wiggins emerged as a valued backcourt player with Lucas gone, and 6-foot-11 Jim Petersen showed he could spell Sampson or Olajuwon.

The Rockets’ weakness against Boston, guard play, was ignored in the draft. Houston selected forward Buck Johnson in the first round and 7-footer Dave Feitl in the third.

Petersen was a training-camp holdout and the Rockets opened the season with four new faces -- Johnson, Feitl, Conner Henry and Richard Anderson. Yet, they beat the Lakers in the opener. Since then, disarray has followed:

-- Sampson sprained both ankles and later underwent knee surgery, eventually missing 41 games.

-- Olajuwon missed seven games with a sprained ankle.

-- Lloyd was arrested in Philadelphia for non-payment of child support.

-- Houston lost by 56 points at home to Seattle, the worst home defeat in NBA history.

-- Reid was out seven games with torn cartilage and a cyst in his right knee;

-- McCray’s 5-year-old daughter was discovered to have an inoperable brain tumor.

-- There were allegations Sampson and Wiggins were tanking games to get Fitch fired.

-- Lloyd and Wiggins were kicked out of the NBA for drug use.

-- Dallas Coach Dick Motta accused the Rockets of losing on purpose to enhance their playoff position.

“The Rockets’ season has been a nightmare,” Lakers Coach Pat Riley said. “They’ve had a bad season, but not because of the way they’ve played. First, it was injuries to Sampson and Olajuwon, and if that wasn’t enough, they had the drug situation. I don’t think any other coach could have gone through a season like Bill Fitch has, and kept a ballclub over .500. It’s a tribute to his coaching.”

The loss of Wiggins and Lloyd and the injuries to Houston’s big men have again magnified the team’s major weakness -- outside shooting.

Houston resembles last year’s team only when the guards hit from outside -- which is not often. When Sampson was injured, opponents limited Olajuwon by sagging in the middle.

General Manager Ray Patterson has sought help. He acquired Dirk Minniefield from Cleveland and Cedric Maxwell from the Clippers and re-signed Allen Leavell. But that has not been enough.

“The Rockets are still a threat,” Lakers forward James Worthy said. “But they miss Wiggins and Lloyd. With the problems they’ve had, their chemistry has been disrupted.”