Olajuwon Just Sinks Clippers : Basketball: Shooting from the outside, he scores 14 of his 34 points in the final 10 minutes.

Akeem Olajuwon, master of pulling inside jobs, asked the Clippers to step outside Tuesday night. He followed with something of a sneak attack, delivering a knockout blow that would have made courtside observer George Foreman proud.

“When I first came into the league, I tried to dunk on everybody,” Olajuwon said. “Now, I take the easy baskets.”

Here are your easy baskets: 16-footer straightaway, 18-footer from the right side, 18-footer dead on, and never more accurate than when it mattered most.

What it all means is that one of the NBA’s best players is still improving, a notion the Clippers will attest to after Olajuwon made five of nine shots in the final 9 1/2 minutes, only one closer than 13 feet, to lead the Houston Rockets to a 107-102 victory at the Summit.

Olajuwon finished with 34 points, 14 coming in the crucial stretch after the Clippers had tied the score, 87-87, and 14 of 26 from the field after opening five of 11 in the first half. That doesn’t include the 20 rebounds for the second consecutive game, three blocked shots and a career-high eight steals.

That such a barrage came against the Clippers is a surprise because Benoit Benjamin usually handles Olajuwon as well as any center in the league. The Rockets’ five-time All-NBA center averaged only 17.8 points in four meetings against the Clippers last season, but this was Benjamin’s first glimpse of Houston’s new Mr. Outside this season.

Benjamin, who had 16 points and 13 rebounds, was quick to say he didn’t know Olajuwon had a new weapon.

“I really did not want him to beat me inside,” Benjamin said. “So I guess he said he would take me outside.”

So he did.

“Nobody in the league is going to deny him the ball,” Clipper Coach Mike Schuler said. “Centers in the league can’t keep the ball from him. Since he now knocks down jumpers from the top of the circle, it makes him so much more difficult to play.”

The Clippers (6-7) had Olajuwon under control for most of the first half, when Benjamin, Charles Smith and Loy Vaught switched off on him. They still were limiting the Rocket center in the opening 7 1/2 minutes of the third quarter, when his only points came on a rebound layin and a nice baseline spin move around Benjamin.

But when the Clippers, boosted by the outside shooting of Winston Garland, closed a 12-point deficit midway through the third quarter, Olajuwon came to life. A tie game with 9:41 remaining turned into a Clipper could-have-been when Olajuwon, conscious of Benjamin’s ability as a shot blocker inside, poured in those 14 points. Mixed in were enough defensive plays to cause more trouble, namely two steals and two blocked shots.

The biggest of those came with 2:24 left, when the Clippers, opening a three-game trip, were within 103-100. But Garland, who had 21 points before fouling out with 38 seconds to play, got trapped on the right side of the lane, allowing Olajuwon to reach down and steal the ball. At the other end, he buried a free throw-line jumper to make it a five-point lead.

Clipper Notes

The Clippers had a five-point play late in the second quarter, sort of. It began when Charles Smith connected on a baseline jumper and was fouled. Before he went to the line, referee Steve Javie hit Otis Thorpe, sitting on the bench, with a technical for arguing the call. Bo Kimble made that free throw. Before anything else, Javie called another technical on Houston Coach Don Chaney. Kimble made that free throw. Finally, Smith got his chance and made it three for three at the line, as the Clippers went from 49-43 down to 49-48. . . . The Clippers got 24 points from Gary Grant and 21 from Winston Garland, the latter on 10-of-13 shooting, season bests for both. . . . The Clippers committed a season-high 25 turnovers, which the Rockets converted into 33 points. . . . Correction: Ken Norman, on the injured list with a sprained left ankle, is not eligible to return until the Dec. 5 game against Dallas at the Sports Arena.