Cassell’s Scoring Surge Leads Rockets to Victory : Game 3: Rookie guard scores final seven points as Houston defeats New York, 93-89, to take 2-1 lead in series.

The Houston Rockets avoided another fourth-quarter fade Sunday night and guaranteed that if the Knicks come back to win the NBA championship they’ll have to do it away from the raucous New York crowd.

Rookie guard Sam Cassell scored the Rockets’ last seven points of the game as they hung on for a 93-89 victory and a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 NBA Finals.

His three-pointer with 32 seconds left gave the Rockets the lead for good at 89-88 and he added four free throws as Houston regained the homecourt advantage it had lost in Game 2.

In that game in Houston, they went without a field goal over the last 6 1/2 minutes. They nearly lost the opener when they let a 12-point lead drop to three with 2:13 left.

They nearly blew Sunday’s game but Cassell, who failed in the fourth quarter of Game 2, was the unlikely hero.

“I’m still young, I’ve been learning things all season and my teammates still have a lot of confidence in me,” Cassell said. “That home court advantage is ours, baby.”

The Knicks had taken an 88-86 lead, only their third of the game, on Derek Harper’s jumper with 52 seconds left. Houston got the ball to Hakeem Olajuwon who threw it back out to Cassell for the deciding 3-pointer, Houston’s second in its last 10 attempts.

Patrick Ewing was called for an offensive foul when he bumped Vernon Maxwell on New York’s next possession. Cassell made two free throws for a 91-88 lead with 22 seconds to play.

John Starks, who had made three of four 3-pointers in New York’s Game 2 victory, missed a three-pointer with 10 seconds left, and was fouled attempting another with 3.9 seconds left.