NBA FINALS : THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Their Destiny Is to Be a Dynasty

Destiny is a victory away and with it the most improbable defense of a championship in NBA history. There was the Celtic Dynasty, the Laker Dynasty and the Bull Dynasty.

Welcome to the Accidental Dynasty.

With Sunday’s 106-103 victory, the Houston Rockets took a 3-0 lead over the getting-younger-every-game Orlando Magic. It’s not that a rally is out of the question, it’s just the Magic players don’t seem to be expecting one.

“What are the odds?” asked Dennis Scott, laughing. “Probably never to forever.”

At this point, the Rocket odyssey is so long, it’s hard to remember how impossible it was. But it was:

--Down to the Utah Jazz, 2-1; down to the Suns, 3-1, going back to Phoenix; tied with the Spurs, 2-2, going back to San Antonio.

--Winners of five games in which they could have been eliminated, including three on the road and two in which they overcame double-figure deficits; winners of a record seven playoff games in a row on the road.

If you don’t believe they’re a team of destiny, ask the Magic.

“You have to,” Penny Hardaway said. “That team, you look at it on paper, you’d say, ‘How does this team win?’ But their hearts are just as big as any team’s in the NBA.”

On paper, the Rockets are shaky from top to bottom. Owner Les Alexander, a junk bond tycoon, bought the team two summers ago and announced it would join the fight for animal rights, a cause his wife favors. Rocket cheerleaders now wear T-shirts inscribed: “All Animals Have Rights.”

Alexander showed his own depth of compassion by firing the Rockets’ public relations staff shortly after the team won the NBA title last spring.

The roster is thin to the point of desperation. Aside from the six Rockets who have played 665 of the 745 minutes in this series, they’re a motley crew. When the season started, Pete Chilcutt was in Italy, Chucky Brown was in Yakima, Wash., playing for the CBA Sun Kings, and Charles Jones was a 37-year-old retiree.

Rudy Tomjanovich, coach and de facto general manager, broke the team up in mid-season to get Clyde Drexler, figuring what did he have to lose?

He found out. With Drexler, the Rockets finished 17-18.

Momentum is a funny thing and a lot of it is downright hilarious. By the time they got to Orlando, the Rockets were a different creature, as they proved when they wiped out a 20-point lead, threw in a three-point shot with :01 left in regulation to tie and won in overtime on Hakeem Olajuwon’s last-second tip.

After that, you could color the Magic dead.

“I think Game 1 was really a heartbreaker,” Hardaway said. “You know, being up 20 points.

“You try and get rid of that thought about Game 1 and come in Game 2 and win, and then you get blown out at home. Then you go on the road and you say, ‘Hey, let’s just forget about those two games, try and get back in it and win two out of three or maybe all three.’

“And then you lose this one. The mind says, ‘Like what can we do that we haven’t already done?’ ”

Make a jump shot?

Scott is five for 21 in Games 2 and 3. It was one thing for Nick Anderson to struggle after missing those four fatal free throws. It was another thing for Scott, whose game developed sympathy pains and croaked too.

“It hit me,” Scott said, “but I thought I tried to bounce back in Game 2. I came out and I hit my first couple shots, tried to get into the flow of the game. Then it seemed like my jumper went on vacation.”

Suggesting there is an inexorable sweep to history, intrepid Rocket owner Alexander has another big move planned--changing the team’s colors and logo.

However, since Houston fans have developed a sentimental attachment to red and yellow, not to mention that they’ve recently outfitted themselves from head to foot in soon-to-be-outmoded gear, this promises to be another public relations disaster.

Also, Alexander is thinking of firing another P.R. director. Maybe next time he should hire an elk.

But there is just no standing between this team and its destiny. It won’t be long before the Rockets are in the winner’s circle again and the Magic are with Scott’s jumper, on vacation.