NBA PLAYOFFS : Barkley Blanked, and Houston Wins : Western Conference: Suns’ star shut out from the field, scores only five points in 118-85 loss to Rockets.

Hakeem Olajuwon was at his best, which meant that the Houston Rockets were at their best.

Charles Barkley was at his worst, which meant the Phoenix Suns were awful.

“If we play like this all the time, we’ll be champions again,” Olajuwon said Saturday after the Rockets beat Phoenix, 118-85, at the Summit to cut their deficit to 2-1 in the Western Conference semifinals.

Champions? Maybe. Houston was behind, 2-0, to Phoenix last season before winning in seven games en route to the NBA title.

For sure, the Rockets will be in the conference finals if Barkley has a few more games like Saturday’s, in which he missed all of his 10 shots from the field and scored only five points on five-of-six shooting from the free-throw line.

He had averaged 31.4 points in his first five playoff games, which had included two lopsided victories over the Rockets, and had never been held below double figures in 10 years of playoffs.

“It was my fault. I’ll take the blame for us,” Barkley said. “I don’t think I ever scored five points before. It was just a bad game by me. I let everybody down. I got good shots. I missed five layups.”

Barkley was 0 for 7 in the first half. The Suns failed to score a basket in the final 6:45 of the first quarter and got only one in the final 3:52 of the second.

“It happens to the greatest of people,” Phoenix’s Dan Majerle said. “I’m glad he missed all of them today so maybe he’ll make all of them tomorrow.”

The teams play again today.

Barkley should have plenty of rest. Coach Paul Westphal removed him from the game with 4:52 left in the third quarter and the Suns trailing, 79-52. Westphal intended to put Barkley back if the game got under control, but it never did and he spent the rest of the afternoon seated on the floor, away from the bench, leaning against an advertising sign.

Olajuwon, who finished with 36 points and 11 rebounds, scored Houston’s first 11 points of the third quarter before turning the game over to the substitutes.

“We’re just glad it’s over,” Westphal said. “We know we can play better. It was their day. It certainly wasn’t our day.”