NBA Roundup : Rebuilt Rockets Are Blasting Off

There have been a lot of laughs about the Houston Rockets’ Golden State Connection. Since the Ralph Sampson trade, the Rockets now have five former Warriors on their squad.

Nobody, especially the high-powered teams in the Central Division, thinks it’s a laughing matter these days.

Purvis Short, Sleepy Floyd and Joe Barry Carroll, three members of the Connection, made the key plays as the Rockets rallied to beat the Bucks, 102-93, Wednesday night at Milwaukee.

Short had 24 points, including 10 in a row in the second period, to get the Rockets back in the game.

After Terry Cummings sank three consecutive jumpers to put the Bucks ahead, 86-85, with 4:33 left, Floyd and Carroll did their part.

Floyd tied the score with a free throw, then Carroll made a hook, a jumper and converted a three-point play to clinch the victory.

The Rockets’ last three victories have been against Atlanta, Detroit and Milwaukee, the three best teams in the Central Division, generally conceded to be the best of the four divisions.

Once again, the Rockets had outstanding success using their new version of the Twin Towers, with Carroll replacing Sampson as Akeem Olajuwon’s running mate.

Olajuwon had 28 points, but picked up his fifth foul halfway through the final quarter. That was when the Golden State Connection took over.

There was speculation that Carroll, often an unhappy Warrior, would sulk even more as a backup center. Instead, Carroll seems to be enjoying himself, especially when he’s on the court with Olajuwon.

“People forgot to be very kind to him,” Houston Coach Bill Fitch said of Carroll. “He had bad things written about him before he even put on a Houston uniform. We’ve seen nothing but hard work out of him. He’s got a lot of things that can be misread.

“I said all along that I thought Joe Barry and Akeem would work together as well as Ralph and Akeem did.”

Reportedly, it was the inability of Olajuwon and Sampson to play together that led to the trade in which Carroll and Floyd went to the Rockets and Sampson became a Warrior.

This was the second consecutive game in which the Rockets took charge when Carroll and Olajuwon were both on the court.

Atlanta 117, Cleveland 110--The Cavaliers welcomed back their best player, Ron Harper, injured in the second game of the season, and it just missed being an occasion to celebrate at Richfield, Ohio.

Harper had trouble finding his shooting touch, but he scored nine points in the fourth quarter as the Cavaliers rallied from a nine-point deficit to pull even, 105-105, with 2:14 left.

But Cliff Levingston, playing in place of injured Kevin Willis at power forward, made a three-point play to put the Hawks ahead to stay.

Dominique Wilkins, with 33 points, and John Battle, coming off the bench to score 27 points, enabled the Hawks to build the early lead and hold on for their fourth in a row.

Wilkins sounded a warning for the rest of the league. “When Harper gets into his rhythm, the Cavs will be tough,” he said.

Detroit 105, Indiana 95--The Pistons, trailing, 49-47, at halftime at Indianapolis, put the ball in the hands of Adrian Dantley.

With Dantley doing most of the damage, the Pistons broke the game open in the third quarter and won for the 11th time in the last 12 games.

A 27-10 burst enabled the Pistons to outscore the Pacers, 35-16, in 12 minutes.

Dantley either drove to the basket and was fouled, shot and made the basket or passed off to a teammate for an easy basket. When it was all over Dantley had 31 points, including 9 for 9 from the line and eight assists.

The veteran forward has never been a big assist man, but in this came he was dishing off, especially to John Salley. Salley had four baskets on passes from Dantley in the 27-10 rally.

Seattle 111, Boston 105--Tom Chambers scored 10 of his 31 points in the last six minutes at Seattle to help the SuperSonics overcome another brilliant performance by Larry Bird.

Bird had 36 points, 15 rebounds and 8 assists. The Celtics were hurt when center Robert Parish had to leave late in the second quarter with a hip injury.

Portland 117, Washington 112--Jerome Kersey has played so well since getting his chance when Kiki Vandeweghe went out with a back problem last month, that he has won a starting assignment. He is also the reason for the reports that Vandeweghe, back in action, is on the trading block.

Kersey strengthened his position in this game at Landover, Md. The 6-7 fourth-year pro from little Longwood College in Virginia scored 30 points to lead the Trail Blazers.

The game also featured the only three current NBA players who played in the old American Basketball Assn.--Moses Malone of the Bullets and Caldwell Jones and Maruice Lucas of the Trail Blazers.

San Antonio 140, Sacramento 108--John Dawkins had 25 points and Alvin Robertson had 22 and the Spurs extended their winning streak at home to 10 games in a romp over the Kings.

The Kings, who are 1-11 on the road, fell behind by 19 at halftime and were never a factor.

Utah 104, Golden State 103--Karl Malone had 32 points and 12 rebounds at Salt Lake City and Mark Eaton made a three-point play with two seconds left to clinch the win.

Eaton’s rebound of a Malone miss and ensuing free throw with two seconds left, offset Rod Higgins’ three-point bomb at the buzzer.