THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : As Usual, Nothing Will Be Easy for Knicks

This is the Gulf Coast of Texas, where the humidity hovers near 100 on Christmas Day and you have to push the air out of the way if you want to go outside.

A breeze? Aside from the occasional hurricane, there hasn’t been a breeze here since dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The New York Knicks opened the NBA finals here Wednesday night. No breezes there either, even if the West has nothing better to offer than those perpetually reforming screw-ups, the Rockets. John Starks said the pressure was off after two seven-game series, but he learned the truth when the Knicks fell in one of those NBA pitchers’ duels, 85-78, and the only breezes came from his airballs.

Starks went three for 18. Derek Harper went three for 10. Greg Anthony was three for seven, Hubert Davis one for six, for a grand total of 10 for 41. If the Knicks hope to keep the Rockets from packing it back in on Patrick Ewing, they’re going to have to find some shooters--and the trading deadline has passed.

“When you come this far and you work this hard,” Knick Coach Pat Riley said, “I don’t care what it’s about, you’ve got to make shots.

“We had the ability to win this game if we made shots. I think that’s the universal disease and the perception people have of us . . . but when they give us those shots, we’ve got to make them.”

Of course, his players have been bricking them up all season.

They were surely tired, too, after going to Game 7s against the Chicago Bulls and the Indiana Pacers. The Knicks like to think they’ve become so tough there isn’t any obstacle they can’t overcome, but all they really did was advance over two teams they were expected to beat easily, rather than duel to the death.

Of course, Riley doesn’t want them even thinking about fatigue.

“This is no time to be tired,” he said. “We played two seven-game series, but that’s no excuse this time of year. There are no excuses this time of year. That ring should create enough adrenaline to get you past that.”

Of course, the Knicks parroted him.

“What are you saying,” Harper said, “that we were tired?

“Nah, You don’t play the kind of defense we played in the fourth quarter if you’re tired.”

Maybe if you’re tired, you start off well and then just fade away.

The Knicks shot 10 for 22 in the first quarter, nine for 19 in the second . . . then six for 26 in the third.

They started the fourth quarter with a one-for-nine run, making them seven for their last 35. Thus it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the Rockets, who had their own problems--they were too rested, they said--were 12 points up.

But then came the fourth quarter, which, in Houston, is the same thing as the bewitching hour.

Ever since the Phoenix Suns stormed back from 18- and 20-point deficits in back-to-back games in their second-round series, the Rockets have been hearing footsteps. Wednesday the crowd began stirring when the Knicks cut their 77-65 lead to 77-69.

The Rockets responded by, uh, not playing very well under pressure.

The Knicks closed to 79-76 before going into their own Keystone Kops routine. Starks shot an airball from the three-point line. Under pressure, Anthony bounced an entry pass out of bounds.

Finally, Kenny Smith, winner of the nightly Rudy Tomjanovich lottery to see if he has a point guard capable of finishing the game, got inside the Knick defense and passed to Otis Thorpe, who was so near the basket, he didn’t have to chance a shot and embarrass them all further. He dunked.

That was the Rockets’ only basket in the last 8:53--and one of their two in the fourth quarter.

“We made that many?” Tomjanovich deadpanned later.

Starks, having just learned that the playoffs get harder as you advance, not easier, didn’t compound his mistakes by saying anything else. The Knicks stationed a public-relations assistant between him and reporters to announce John would not be commenting on anything.

The assistant didn’t say if Riley had stationed him there, but it would have been a good thought.